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William Shatner and his 61-year-old daughter revealed this week that the two of them battled cancer at the same time several years ago.
Melanie Shatner Gretsch first discovered her cancer four years ago when she woke up in the middle of the night and felt a little lump on her breast that she thought might be a bug bite.
She told People magazine she decided to have it checked out despite a mammogram not finding anything just five months before.
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Although the technician didn’t find anything during the scan the next day, “something pushed me back and said, ‘No, have her recheck it.’ She put the wand exactly where I put my finger and under her breath said, ‘Now, I would have missed that.’”
She was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer that had spread to lymph nodes in her chest.
Shatner said his daughter was “very conscious of the importance of her life for herself and for her family. I was devastated.”
Gretsch is a mother to two daughters whom she shares with husband Joel Gretsch.
Gretsch said her father told her not to worry about the medical costs and to send him the bills.
“Then you made me laugh so hard when I was still going to the doctor a year later,” she added. “You said, ‘You’ve got to get well. We’re going to be in the poorhouse!’”
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For the next 18 months, her life was filled with multiple rounds of chemo, 30 radiation treatments and a double mastectomy.
“Chemo was the most physically draining, and the radiation I found so emotionally draining,” she admitted.
Just as she was nearing the end of her treatments, a lump appeared on her dad’s cheek.
He said a family doctor told him it was just a blocked salivary gland that was nothing to worry about, but a doctor friend whose advice he asked while they were horseback riding advised him to get it removed.
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“He placed his hands on my cheeks, and he said with love in his voice, ‘You better get this out,’” Shatner explained.
In June 2023, Shatner was diagnosed stage 4 malignant melanoma that had spread to his lungs and brain.
“I remember vividly thinking, ‘I don’t have the strength to take care of myself and lose my father at the same time,’” Gretsch admitted.
Shatner was more upbeat. “They said, ‘You got cancer. If you came in later, you would have been dead.’ See? That’s my life. I think the universe is taking care of me.”
The 95-year-old had the tumor removed and underwent two years of immunotherapy.
“He wouldn’t stop his life,” his daughter told People magazine. “He kept working and moving forward. Whenever he was home, Joel and I would bring dinner to him and watch movies, just always made sure that he’s not alone.”
Shatner added, “We got the perfect doctors for her cancer and my cancer.”
The “Star Trek” actor, who was the oldest man in space when he went up in a Blue Origin rocket, has stayed busy with two new books and two records, all expected to come out next year.
“I’m healthier now than I’ve been in years,” Shatner said. “The brain is like a muscle. It feeds on activity.”
Near the end of 2024, they were declared cancer free.
“It was the third time in my life I had heard him cry,” Gretsch admitted of telling him her cancer was gone.
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Shatner said the experience has given him a new perspective on life.
“I’m thinking of the miracle of a hummingbird, and of my dog taking a ball, and my children,” he said. “I’m aware of the magic of it all.”
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