'Good Morning America' Host Robin Roberts Has Breast Cancer

“Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts announced this morning she has breast cancer.

Roberts, 46, told viewers on the ABC program, “I didn't want you to hear it from anyone else…I have breast cancer.”

Her cancer is still in the early stages, as doctors caught it early. An initial surgery is scheduled for Friday. She will undergo treatment for the next several months and continue hosting her morning program.

In a message written for “Good Morning America's” website, Roberts said she discovered a lump during a routine self-examination. It was a poignant moment for Roberts – the find was made on the same day the show aired a tribute to friend Joel Siegel, who lost his battle with colon cancer in June.

“At first I thought, 'This can't be. I am a young, healthy woman,'” she wrote.

But Roberts is confident, insisting that she will “move forward, as millions of people do when they hear this.”

Roberts finished her written statement with an emotional plea and a glimmer of hope: “And like my good friend Joel, I can't stress enough how important it is to get screened and checked for all cancers — and to do self breast exams. I am so blessed that I found this in the early stages and the prognosis is so promising that my doctor expects me to be flying planes and hanging on to submarines in the middle of the Atlantic and scaling the Mayan Pyramids in no time in the mornings to come. “