Kelly Hyland, star of Dance Moms was recently speaking to E! News about being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 53.

“Dance Moms” follows the everyday lives of young competitive dancers and their moms as they train at the Abby Lee Dance Company  in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The dancers are being taught by the famously demanding and controversial dance instructor Abby Lee Miller.

The reality star said she found a lump in her breast at the end of March. So, she scheduled a mammogram. She had just had a previous mammogram 8 months prior, and the results came up clean. “I went from clean results to a malignant mass in eight months,” Hyland told E! News. “I was shocked that it had grown that quickly and scared of the battle I knew I was about to face.”

The mammogram found invasive carcinoma grade 3, stage 1. This means it is a fast moving cancer.

Hyland said people started to notice her “significant weight loss.” People started to ask her for “dieting hacks” but she hadn’t changed anything. This was her first red flag sign that something was off.

The reality star was dreading having to break the news to her kids about the cancer. She has 3 kids: Brooke, 26, and Paige, 23, and Josh, 24 with her husband Randy Hyland. She did a four-way phone call to share the same information with her kids all at the same time.

 

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Currently, Hyland is being treated with chemotherapy. She is on the second of six rounds of chemo. After chemo, there will be surgery, radiation and 11 more treatments. 

She is fortunate to have supportive family members and her Dance Mom community to provide support as she goes through her treatment. Also, she continues to work on Dance Mom projects and podcasts.