'Bachelorette' Star Hannah Brown Reveals Cancer Diagnosis At The Age Of 11

KEY POINTS

Hannah Brown was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when she was in fifth grade
Her tumor was malignant, and she underwent surgery for it
She said she feared losing her hair after her diagnosis

“Bachelorette” star Hannah Brown has revealed she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 11.

The reality star made the revelation in her new memoir “God Bless This Mess.” She said she was trying to find an explanation for her persistent stomach aches during her fifth grade when doctors found out she had cancer. A tumor the size of an egg was discovered on her pancreas after she went in for an MRI to know the reason behind her pain, PageSix reported.

“They sent me for a biopsy, and a day or so later, my dad got a call with the results—not from our regular doctor, but from an oncologist,” she said in the memoir. “The tumor was malignant. Cancer. Pancreatic cancer—one of the deadliest forms of cancer there is.”

The "Bachelorette" star wrote she only had peace of mind when the oncologist told them her cancer had not spread elsewhere.

“On the day of my surgery, I wasn’t scared about what was going to happen to me. At all,” she recalled. “Even though my mother was in tears and my dad looked as worried as I’d ever seen him in my life as the nurses came to wheel me into the operating room, I looked up at my mom from my hospital bed and said, ‘Mama, I’m going to be okay.’”

She revealed the only fear she had at the time was the possibility of hair loss due to treatment. “There was a chance we’d have to go through radiation and chemotherapy, they said, depending on what the surgeon found once they got me into the operating room. But miraculously, I didn’t need either one,” she wrote.

Brown revealed the surgery went well, and did not leave behind any cancerous cells. She said she had to go to check up a few more times a year after the operation, but nothing else ever turned up in her scans or bloodwork.

Brown holds nothing back in her new memoir. Aside from her cancer diagnosis, she also revealed in her book all about her breakup from Jed Wyatt after “The Bachelorette,” and how she reconnected with Tyler Cameron after the show aired in the summer of 2019.