Janice Dickinson Talks To ‘The Doctors’ About Her Breast Cancer: ‘I’m A Fighter’

Janice Dickinson appeared on The Doctors on Wednesday to talk about her breast cancer diagnosis. Janice told them it’s the first time she’s really felt afraid. Dickinson lost her mother to cancer and says that her first thought when she received the news was of her children and her fiancée.

Janice revealed her diagnosis in an interview with Daily Mail last week. She was diagnosed on March 12 with early stage ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) — a common form of breast cancer that starts in the milk ducts. Dickinson was the first supermodel. She is 61-years-old now, and describes the experience as being like a nightmare.

“It’s still quite shocking. Today I got very scared… I just get very scared and it hit me. But I am not gonna let that define me, the fear. I’m going to get through this, I’ll be just fine kiddo.”

When Janice Dickinson went to see her physician for some stomach trouble on March 8, she had no idea that she would leave the office under the cloud of possible breast cancer. While Dickinson was at the doctor’s office, she decided to do a full exam and found a pea-sized lump in her breast. Janice talked about how she felt leaving the doctor’s office that day.

“I’m always optimistic, initially when the doctor found the lump it hurt, it became quite painful when you touch it, that’s the point when I knew this is serious, when the doctor touched this little lump in my right breast, about the size of a pea, and I went bingo, I have cancer.”

Three days later, Dickinson had a mammogram and a biopsy. The results came back within 24 hours.

“My 22-year-old and I were out shopping when I got a call from Rocky telling me the doctor was trying to get hold of me, then the doctor called me and told me, yes it’s positive for cancer. I just was really glad that my daughter Savannah, she likes to be called Savi, I was really glad Savi was with me at that moment because it was kind of an out of body experience. At that moment I knew I had to be brave and I had to be strong. I had to find the courage I possess as a woman, that we all have as women and then I had to put my chin up and my shoulders back and take it moment by moment.”

Janice held it together until she got home to her fiancée, Robert “Rocky” Gerner. He greeted her with a hug and Janice fell apart in his arms. Dickinson hesitated calling her son, Nathan, but finally did. He told her that it was probably the first time he had cried in 20 years. Janice and Rocky both say that the diagnosis has made the normally outgoing and vocal former supermodel more introspective. Rocky commented on the changes in Janice.

“She seems different, she now goes through times that she’s very silent and actually contemplating and meditating. Since this has happened we haven’t been going out to see movies or plays, she just hasn’t felt at ease.”

Dickinson told The Doctors that this was a journey she never expected to take.

“I use to obsess over image, I’m the world’s first supermodel, I’ve been in front of cameras. I will never keep quiet when something is bothering me. I’m a fighter… I’m not the type of woman to fall apart but it’s nothing to downplay.”

Janice Dickinson added that she intends to be around for a long time so she can see her daughter marry and have children and so she and Rocky can get married.

[Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images]