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Robin Roberts is celebrating the tenth anniversary of her return to Good Morning America after undergoing a bone marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).
In a video shared Feb. 9, the GMA host showed up at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City to surprise and thank two nurses who were by her side when she received a bone marrow transplant from her sister a decade ago.
Robin Roberts’ Bone Marrow Transplant
Roberts received a breast cancer diagnosis in 2007 — five years before her MDS diagnosis.
MDS is “considered a type of cancer,” and there are several types of the syndrome, according to The American Cancer Society. The condition is a rare disorder that can occur when blood-forming cells in the bone marrow become abnormal, “which leads to low numbers of one or more types of blood cells.”
Roberts reflected on the role GMA played in her health journey in a recent interview with PEOPLE. The host recalled waiting 174 days “to be healthy enough” before returning to her hosting gig in 2013. She candidly shared that she felt blessed and “overcome with emotion” when she could finally be on-air again and say “Good Morning, America.”
“Our GMA viewers and my colleagues have been with me through it all, especially my health challenges,” Robert told PEOPLE. “They’ve seen me bald, they’ve seen me at barely 100 lbs., but ten years after returning to GMA, today they see me thriving.”
In honor of her tenth-anniversary milestone, Roberts is doing her part to make sure people needing a bone marrow transplants can get the help they need. The host and GMA have partnered with Be The Match, a nonprofit run by the National Marrow Donor Program. The grouping will hold bone marrow registry drives nationwide Feb. 15.
“The best celebration for me will be knowing that we’ve added to the bone marrow registry and that more people have a better chance of finding their lifesaving match,” said Roberts.
Learn more about joining a bone marrow registry via Be The Match.
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