If there’s a silver lining from Robin Roberts harrowing battle with MDS, it’s that she’s inspired others facing life-threatening diseases and has motivated others to help the fight.
About 56,000 people have signed up to be potential donors of blood and bone marrow, Parade reports in their latest issue.
“I feel now more than ever that my life has purpose,” the beloved “Good Morning America” host told the magazine. “ I think that I am being used for light and love and resilience.”
In the interview, Roberts also thanked her support team for helping her through her darkest days, including leukemia specialist Dr. Gail Roboz and Dr. Sergio Giralt, a specialist in bone marrow transplants who cried and prayed during the transplant.
“Talk about a dream team,” says Roberts. “I love a doctor who can respect that there’s somebody else on your team, and that’s God.”
She also credits ABC medical correspondent Dr. Richard Besser and her friend Diane Sawyer. Roberts said that Sawyer “puts her life on hold when someone close to her is going through something like this.”
“People call them colleagues, and I’m like, ‘Colleagues don’t come to your room when you’re about to be reborn. These are the people that you love, who are close to you.’ They’re family to me.”
Besides her coworkers, the morning show anchor also thanked her family members, especially her sister Sally-Ann who donated bone marrow to save Roberts’ life.