Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer.Photo: Netflix
“She’s doing well. She is just so strong and such a pillar of strength that I can’t imagine anyone tackling cancer the way that she has,” Teplin, 42, said. “She’s just so incredible.”
Shearer revealed to PEOPLE exclusively on Thursday thatshe has been diagnosed with invasive mammary carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer. The 40-year-old mother of two underwent a 9-hour double mastectomy on Friday, learning that while doctors initially thought she has stage 1 cancer, it’s actually stage 2, the cancer expanding to one of her lymph nodes.
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Asked if Shearer ever thought of keeping her diagnosis private, Teplin insisted Shearer “only knows one mode” and wasn’t going to keep this from fans. “[Clea’s] a public person and she decided to make this no different,” she said. “She felt like if she could do this for anybody and if there was something to show for this horrible thing that she has to go through, then it was all worth going public for.”
“She has the best attitude,” Teplin also said. “I can’t imagine having the attitude that she has. She’s like, ‘If it’s going to happen to someone, why not me?’ instead of ‘Why me?’ And because she’s able to have that fortitude and way of thinking about it, she’s able to help so many other people. She’s using this platform and the privilege of having help, having the support, having the emotional support — all those things — to bring awareness to others.”
Back in February, Teplin and Shearer were both in New York City to film a segment onTodaywhen she found two small lumps in her right breast during a self-exam.
“She said, ‘I think I found something. I’m not sure what it is,’ " Teplin recalled on Monday. “And we just decided, ‘We’re not going to spiral yet. Let’s get more information first.’
As Shearer explained to PEOPLE, she reached out to see her OBGYN immediately, but was told the soonest appointment was in May. Uncertain and anxious, she tried her primary care doctor, who, luckily, was able to order schedule her in for a mammogram within a few days.
“Thank God she’s such an advocate for herself,” Teplin said. “And she’s now becoming an advocate for so many others to self-test and be aware from the start.”
Courtesy Clea Shearer
On Friday, Shearer told her followers in a series of Instagram Stories that she was home from the hospital and recovering in her own bed.
“I’ve been mobile, I’ve been walking around. I have some pain, don’t get me wrong, but we can do hard things,” she said.
“The surgery was super successful but it took 9 hours because they found cancer in one of my lymph notes,” she captioned her videos. “Now that it’s in my lymph nodes, it means I’m stage 2. So they send the tumor off to a lab, and then they determine whether I need chemotherapy and radiation. But I still feel 100 percent confident that I can beat this thing! I have some pain sure, but I’m up and walking around and feeling strong.”
In fact, Teplin told Guthrie onTodaythat the hardest part right now is trying to keep Shearer sitting down.
“She’s impossible,” Teplin teased. “I told her I’m going to sit on her like a chicken so she stays put but she’s having a tough time sitting.”
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Shearer and Teplin are known for orchestrating amazing makeovers for regular clients and celebrities likeChris Prattand Reese Witherspoon (whose production company Hello Sunshine recently acquired The Home Edit), often with tight deadlines and under extremely stressful circumstances.
As fans ofGet Organizedand the pair’s nearly6 million Instagram followersknow, Shearer is the crunch-time closer, shouting orders to their team and tackling the physical labor of the job to make sure everything is picture perfect. So when it comes to her outlook on her diagnosis and treatment, it should come as no surprise that she’s facing it with determination and focus.
“I’m a fighter. If anyone can crush cancer, it is me,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m literally afraid for cancer and I’ve got this. Even though I know that I’ll be scared the night before, and I’m sure, in the first weeks of recovery, I’ll be pretty grumpy, but it doesn’t mean that I feel any less resolute about absolutely nailing it and putting cancer in my rearview.”
Todayairs weekdays (starting at 7 a.m. ET) on NBC.
source: people.com
