Cancer-stricken Valerie Harper not saying good-bye
NEW YORK (AP) - She has incurable cancer, but Valerie Harper says she's not ready to say good-bye and she's keeping herself open to a miracle.
In her first TV interview since disclosing her diagnosis last week, the 1970s sitcom star tells the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie that "'incurable' is a tough word." People "hear it as this death sentence," she explains.
But Harper insists she's "more than hopeful. I have an intention to live each moment fully."
"I'm not dying until I do," she says. "I promise I won't."
Harper, 73, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer and told she has as little as three months to live. She got the news less than two months ago during her book tour for her new memoir, "I, Rhoda."
Harper won fame playing Rhoda Morgenstern on TV's "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its spinoff, "Rhoda." She won four Emmys in the role.
Harper says "it feels awful damn good to be open about (her illness), face it and see what you can do. If you die, you're not a failure. You're just somebody who had cancer, and that's the outcome."
In the meantime, she's telling herself to keep "your thoughts open to infinite possibility and keep yourself open to miracles."
The interview is scheduled to air on NBC's "Today" on Monday.
In addition, Harper is scheduled to appear on Monday's edition of the syndicated talk show "The Doctors."
In her first TV interview since disclosing her diagnosis last week, the 1970s sitcom star tells the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie that "'incurable' is a tough word." People "hear it as this death sentence," she explains.
But Harper insists she's "more than hopeful. I have an intention to live each moment fully."
"I'm not dying until I do," she says. "I promise I won't."
Harper, 73, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer and told she has as little as three months to live. She got the news less than two months ago during her book tour for her new memoir, "I, Rhoda."
Harper won fame playing Rhoda Morgenstern on TV's "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its spinoff, "Rhoda." She won four Emmys in the role.
Harper says "it feels awful damn good to be open about (her illness), face it and see what you can do. If you die, you're not a failure. You're just somebody who had cancer, and that's the outcome."
In the meantime, she's telling herself to keep "your thoughts open to infinite possibility and keep yourself open to miracles."
The interview is scheduled to air on NBC's "Today" on Monday.
In addition, Harper is scheduled to appear on Monday's edition of the syndicated talk show "The Doctors."
Oxygen Therapy! A friend of ours had Esophogial Cancer and was told wouldn't live 3 years. He had all the chemo and radiation his body could take, and yet tumors still would appear throughout his body. He turned to an Alternative Medicine Doctor and was put on Oxygen Therapy. It has been six years now and he is very healthy...cancer markers are lower than they have EVER been since first diagnosed and is going strong!