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Good Morning America’s Amy Robach Talks Life 5 Years After Cancer Diagnosis: I ‘Have a Lot More Living to Do’ (Exclusive)

Amy Robach on Life After Cancer: 'I Have a Lot More Living to Do'
Amy Robach attends the 2019 WebMD Health Hero Awards on January 15, 2019 in New York City.Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Amy Robach is a force to be reckoned with. It’s been five years since the Good Morning America breaking news anchor underwent a double mastectomy for breast cancer, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down.

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In fact, as the 20/20 cohost, 45, told Us Weekly at the WebMD Health Heroes event in New York City on Tuesday, January 15, she celebrated by accomplishing a pretty amazing feat.

“I summited Kilimanjaro with my family to say, ‘I’m alive and kicking and have a lot more living to do,’” the journalist said. “And my 12-year-old all the way up to my 65-year-old dad made it.”

The climb was an emotional one for Robach. “It was hard, but you’re also thinking like, ‘I’m alive, I can do this. I’m with the people I love, so it was an awesome way to celebrate.’”

The TV personality was prepared for the big moment of glory, however, having hiked the Andean mountains in Peru as a test run — or at least, she tried to be. “Nothing really prepares you for that last final flight of ascension [on Kilimanjaro] because you start at midnight, go from 15,700 feet to almost 20,000 feet, doing switchbacks in the dark of night,” she explained to Us. “I mean it’s like one foot in front of the other.”

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She also admitted she wasn’t quite mentally prepped for the descent. “When I realized we had to climb back down … ‘Wait a minute, we have to walk down?!’” she joked, adding, “No, it was a beautiful moment, it really was.”

Robach announced on GMA in November 2013 that she would be undergoing a double mastectomy after she was urged to do a live mammogram on air by cancer survivor Robin Roberts. “The diagnosis that’s still hard for me to say out loud. I have breast cancer,” she said at the time. “I know that I have a fight ahead of me. But I also know that I have a lot worth fighting for.”

She revealed in an open letter later that month that her prognosis was “good.”

“I got very lucky finding the cancer through our ABC sponsored mammogram,” she wrote. “My cancer had spread to my sentinel lymph node, but not beyond, so I will have more treatments ahead of me, but none that will take me out of work.”

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The Michigan native also spoke to her state of emotional well-being at the time, writing, “Physically and emotionally I have been through the ringer, but I am emerging on the other side so much stronger. I have a greater appreciation for life, for health and for how such simple acts of kindness can be so incredibly powerful.” One month later, she returned to work.

Now, five years in, Robach is planning her next big adventures. “I’m going to go on a big hiking vacation with my friends,” she revealed to Us. “I think we’re going to do 10 miles a day for 10 days … Somewhere in Europe, maybe the Dolomites [in Italy].”

She continued: “And then I’m going to run the NYC marathon, because it falls right on the weekend of my cancer-versary. I’ve never done a marathon. My husband [Andrew Shue] is going to run it with me and so is one of my best friends.”

With reporting by Nicki Gostin

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