Guerdy Abraira talks about being diagnosed with breast cancer while filming Bravo's Real Housewives of Miami.
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00:00Now, our next guest is a name that you might know from the Real Housewives of Miami, but
00:05she was also named one of the best-known designers in the country by Vogue, but she has also
00:11become well-known in the cancer community, now revolutionizing the cancer field with
00:16new products.
00:17Gertie Abrera is joining me now.
00:19Gertie, it is such a pleasure to have you here today.
00:23Thank you for joining us.
00:24Thank you so much.
00:25I am still pinching myself.
00:26This is super surreal.
00:27I mean, especially, you know, for you, you are a breast cancer survivor.
00:31You were diagnosed in March last year, but we saw all of this play out live on the Real
00:37Housewives of Miami.
00:39Walk me through that process.
00:41I mean, learning about your diagnosis, while the lights, camera, you know, your castmates,
00:47everybody was there, and then also going through the process.
00:50It was a very hard decision, actually, because, you know, I had to be protective of myself,
00:55my family, and everything around me, but something, and that's maybe the men upstairs
01:00that said, you know what, this is something you have to do, and it just came about very
01:04naturally and organically, and my husband and I looked at each other, and we're like,
01:07this is the right thing, because we signed up for the show to do what?
01:10To show great lifestyle and so forth, but also the reality of life itself, and that
01:14maybe is sad sometimes and hard sometimes and scary, so I wanted to show all facets
01:19of my life, and I didn't, I never looked back.
01:21Amazing.
01:22How important was your decision to use your platform and bring awareness to this cause?
01:26A hundred percent.
01:27The timing could not have been more on time, as far as from the diagnosis to literally
01:33the last episode, me walking into getting chemo, so you have to tell yourself, this
01:37is me showing a full-bodied experience of something that's really scary, but it showed
01:43people the courage that you can have, the resilience that you can have, and that you
01:47put your best foot forward, and with things, you know, with surroundings and communities
01:50like the American Cancer Society, you can get through it, you know?
01:54And you know, you have two sons.
01:56Yes.
01:57You are a mom to two boys.
01:58Yes.
01:59How was that?
02:00You know, going through the diagnosis, going through the treatment, I mean, you actually
02:03shaved your head on camera, and you were balancing this while also being a mom to your boys.
02:07Yes.
02:08How was that?
02:09Protective mode, so you don't see my sons on screen a lot, and that was a very coordinated
02:16decision, just because I wanted to protect their feelings and their surrounding, and
02:22you do see them once in a while, but those are with moments where we share the news that,
02:27you know, I'm going to be okay, so we wanted to give that aspiration to the boys so that
02:31they know that mom is going to make it, and to be honest, I didn't even think I was going
02:35to have any kind of scary episodes, because I was only stage 1B, but then given the chemo,
02:41my body actually rejected the first round, and I ended up getting a blood clot from it,
02:45so you can't predict that you're going to be okay, but I had to say it to my boys so
02:50that it didn't put a damper on their spirit, so it was something that I decided to do,
02:54and actually my husband is the one that broke the news to them about what I had, because
02:58I was too emotional to even break it to them myself, so we did it as a family, and everyone
03:02does it their way, it just happens to work for me and mine.
03:04Oh my gosh, this is truly such a heartfelt story, but you know, you're cancer-free now.
03:09Oh yes, we're celebrating every day.
03:12We are so happy to have you join us, sharing your touching, touching story.
03:17Thank you so much, Gertie, it was a pleasure speaking with you.
03:19Thank you for having me.
03:20We're appreciating being here, and the American Cancer Society is such an amazing organization,
03:24and I'm just happy to help represent.
03:25Great, thank you so much.