Actress Suzanne Rogers has stared as Maggie Horton on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” for the past 52 years, but now, she’s revealing her cancer diagnosis and how that will impact her work on the show.
Horton told TV Insider that she was diagnosed with cancer over the summer. The felt that something “wasn’t quite right,” so she made a doctor’s appointment. After looking at the results of a routine colonoscopy, a surgeon told her, “I want you to have an MRI and I want you to have a PET scan and I’m going to do a biopsy.”
Rogers shares, “And the minute he said that I knew that it was something more.”
She was diagnosed with Stage II colorectal cancer. Her doctor told her, “You have cancer and you have to start treatment.”
Rogers explained, “It was all a shock. I mean, I think I was in a shock for several days because I take pretty good care of myself. But he said, ‘It’s a good thing you caught it in time.’”
Rogers was on set filming “Days of Our Lives” on June 13th, but three days later, she started treatment. She said, “It was radiation every day and chemo every day for six weeks and it was tough.” She added, “It was tough knowing you had to do it five days a week and then you had off Saturday and Sunday. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekends because I didn’t have to go to and see a doctor. I was so tired of seeing doctors.”
The show took a six-week hiatus over the summer which made it easier for her to get treatment without her absence from the show being very noticeable. She explained, “I was able to keep it under wraps and then the show took that break, so it wasn’t necessary to get into it all then. It helped me because it gave me even more time to chill and to get myself healthy.”
Rogers doesn’t have any family in Los Angeles, so her friend Sunie Ostermann and her on-screen daughter Linsey Godfrey took turns accompanying her to doctor’s appointments. She admited, “It was scary. When I had to go see a doctor, one of them would go with me because you get to a point where once they say cancer, you don’t hear anything else.”
Rogers finished treatment on July 31st, and she is ready to go back on screen. She said, “I’m feeling really good.”
Watch the video below to learn more about Rogers’ cancer battle.
