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Hannah Storm, the 61-year-old ESPN host, received a shocking diagnosis after a routine mammogram screening in November 2023 revealed she had “dense breasts.” Although Storm had undergone follow-up ultrasounds in the past without concern, her latest screening necessitated an additional ultrasound.
She scheduled the follow-up for January 3, without urgency, but was contacted almost immediately after the appointment. According to the American Cancer Society, dense breasts contain more tissue than fat, complicating the reading of mammograms because both tissue and potential tumors appear white in the results.
In an interview with PEOPLE, she shared, “They said, ‘We saw something and we’d like to biopsy it. It’s probably nothing. Not a big deal.’”
She added, “I kind of wish they hadn’t said it’s not a big deal.” The biopsy was arranged without delay, and a week afterward, as Storm was driving home from an exhausting day at work on January 11, the same day Bill Belichick announced his resignation from the Patriots, she received a call from an unknown number.
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The caller was the radiologist. “I knew something was up,” she said.
Storm has been a well-known sports journalist and television personality. Over her career, she has worked with major networks such as CNN, NBC, and ESPN. She is recognized for her contributions to sports broadcasting, particularly her coverage of the NBA, NFL, and various Olympic Games.
“I just heard ‘breast cancer’ and I was shocked,” Storm recalled. “I was so stunned. I’ve had yearly mammograms and there was never anything, I have no family history. I had no pain. I had no lumps. I literally had nothing that would’ve indicated that I had breast cancer.”
Sadly, she felt no relief upon early detection of her condition, until she reconnected with Dr. Elisa Port, Chief Surgeon and Director of Dubin Breast Cancer Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “Dr. Port called me immediately and her first words were, ‘You’re going to die of something. You are not going to die of this,’” Storm recalled. “She not only did my surgery, but guided me through the entire process.”
After conducting an MRI, Dr. Port found two areas with cancerous cells and recommended a lumpectomy for Storm. The surgery, performed successfully on Feb. 1, was followed by a lengthy wait for Storm to receive her official results.
Storm is now “feeling good” and taking unprecedented care of herself following her diagnosis. “Every day when I wake up and I look in the mirror, my left breast doesn’t look exactly like my right one. There’s the scar there.”
“Literally when I look in the mirror, I have this profound sense of gratitude. It’s like a daily reminder of just how fortunate I am. I had no signs. If I hadn’t had a mammogram, I would not have known this was there and it could have been much more dangerous, much more serious, and potentially deadly,” she said.
“This is just to say how important it is to commit to your own health and get your lifesaving screening,” she said. “Breast cancer survival rates just keep climbing and early detection is a huge part of that so give yourself the best chance possible.”
“The more people who talk about breast cancer, the better. So I will beat that drum forever.”
In addition to her work in sports journalism, Storm has been involved in producing documentary films and is an advocate for several causes, including raising awareness for vascular malformations, which her own daughter has. Storm’s career has been marked by her ability to break barriers in a field traditionally dominated by men, earning her a place as a respected figure in sports media.
