Cameron Mathison, who is well known for his work on All My Children and as a host on Hallmark Channel, has been sharing his journey through a cancer battle on social media, and now he's sharing good news.
Mathison originally opened up on his diagnosis about a month ago on Instagram.
I have a health situation that I want to share with you all🙏🏼 There are many reasons I love social media, staying connected with you all, sharing fun experiences... well this time I’m asking for your help.About a month ago, I had an MRI for some gut issues I’ve been having, and during that MRI they found a tumor on my right kidney.It’s consistent with Renal Cell Carcinoma ... or kidney cancer. The good news is that it hasn’t spread to any other organs🙏🏼 They say my healthy lifestyle and diet has no doubt helped keep it from growing and spreading to other areas, as doctors think it’s been growing in me for minimum 10 years🙏🏼.
I am extremely lucky that we found it early. Thank you to my longtime friend and urologist @jon_giddens who has helped me tremendously through this process.Vanessa, Lucas and Leila have been absolutely amazing with their love and support... as have my mom, dad, brother, and everyone at Home and Family, Hallmark, and ET❤️My surgery is scheduled on September 12th, I was hoping to receive positive thoughts, prayers, or whatever you feel comfortable with, on 9/12 (my surgery is at 1pm PST) 🙏🏼I announced this on @homeandfamilytv yesterday, and wanted to make sure I posted about it here as well.Feeling very grateful and optimistic!! 💪🏼🙏🏼❤️#thankyou yes
Three days later, Mathison shared that he had undergone a successful surgery to remove part of his kidney, noting he still got to keep most of it.
Feeling loved and supported by my family and friends, including each and everyone of you. I’ve been very overwhelmed and so grateful for all of the supportive comments and prayers. The surgery went very well. The tumor is gone and I even got to keep 80% of my kidney😊 We are all optimistic. Keep you updated.So grateful for all of you ❤️
The All My Children actor continued to update his followers on his progress after his surgery.
Unbelievably grateful to be back home after a successful partial nephrectomy surgery. It was an eventful 4 days in the hospital, and doing well at home now. @inderbirgillmd is a miracle worker, and my whole family is indebted to him and everyone at @keckmedofusc 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼Thank you to everyone sending prayers, positive thoughts, flowers, cards, stuffed animals, food, love💕... and kidney beans😂Love you guys😌#1.8kidneysleft#cancersucks#cancerfighter#feelingloved
Another inspiring message from Mathison had nothing to do with the actual cancer, but with the changed perspective he gained on his body.
"Half of my life I was focused on the aesthetics of my body and about half of my career I spent shirtless," he said. "Now I proudly bear the scars that made me cancer free. #scarstoyourbeautiful#cancerfree#grateful"
Four weeks after his surgery, Mathison appeared on the red carpet with his wife Vanessa for the American Humane Hero Dog Awards.
“I’m feeling really, really well,” he told Extra. “It’s three weeks out of surgery and I honestly didn’t even think I would be feeling up to coming here. The recovery has been great, the surgery went really well, the prognosis is very optimistic.”
“They removed the tumor on my right kidney and in doing so they removed part of the kidney itself and left the majority of it, and when they did the pathology report and they checked the margins around the tumor, all of that was free and clear of cancer and that led them to believe that all the cancer was out and gone," he continued. "The cancer has not spread … so I am cancer free."
Mathison also pointed out that we all need to be advocates for our own health. His tumor had been growing for eight to ten years before it was finally diagnosed. He went through multiple tests before doctors finally agreed to get an MRI.
“I’ll get goosebumps,” he said when thinking about the process to getting diagnosed. “I get teary talking about it, but Vanessa’s dad passed away from cancer… I would hear that maybe at that time he wasn’t as much of an advocate for his own health.”
Vanessa added, “He wasn’t proactive.”
Mathison went on, “That helped me, kind of motivated me to stay on top of it. I knew my energy was low, I knew these tests didn’t make sense… I knew something was up. Really listen to your body, be an advocate.”
Vanessa also posted about her husband's cancer battle.
My love is cancer free ❤️❤️❤️This past 8 weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. From finding Cameron’s tumor, shock, fear, sadness, turned into focused determination, educated ourselves, prayers...lots of prayers, surgery, receiving support, texts, phones calls, emails and comments from new friends, old friends, family, acquaintances and complete strangers!
filled my heart with hope and strength. The kindness and love we received from everyone was beyond anything imaginable... and I’m eternally grateful. And here we are healthy, happy, filled with gratitude and love, and all dressed up for our first night out. ❤️🙏🏽
Life changes in a moment... be kind, spread love, give someone a smile, say sorry, help others, and forgive. 🙏🏽#cancerfree#mylove#loveofmylife#bekind#spreadlove#helpothers