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CNN news anchor Sara Sidner announced on Monday that she has been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

Sidner announced the diagnosis during Monday’s “CNN News Central” broadcast, which she anchors in the morning.

She said she expects to undergo five months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment as well as a double mastectomy.

“Mentally, it has been 90% good for me because it’s just opened my eyes to how beautiful this life that we have is,” Sidner told PEOPLE, adding: “I love my life now more than I can remember since probably 7 or 8.”

“I really, truly feel grateful just to be here.”

Sidner, 51, said that while she was reporting on the scene from Israel, she was informed by doctors that a recent mammogram raised cause for concern.

The CNN anchor, who noticed a lump months earlier, was told she needed to have a biopsy performed upon her return to the US.

Before returning stateside, Sidner spent three more weeks reporting from Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas terrorists, which left nearly 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians dead.

“Seeing the kind of suffering going on where I was and seeing people still live through the worst thing that has ever happened to them with grace and kindness, I was blown away by their resilience,” she told PEOPLE.

“In some weird way, it helped me with my own perspective on what I am going to be facing.”

Within days of returning to New York, she was told that the biopsy revealed the lump was cancerous and had progressed to Stage 3.

“When I got the news, I didn’t tell anybody, not even my mother or husband or sisters or friends,” Sidner told PEOPLE.

“I just needed to process it.”

Sidner said that when she was told of the news she thought to herself: “You better start writing letters to the people you love because you’re not going to be here.”

She said she began writing a letter to her mother, who is also going through health-related challenges.

After the initial shock of the diagnosis, Sidner said she was determined to adopt a different mindset.

“I just made a decision,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘No, you’re going to live and you’re going to stop this and you’re going to do every single thing in your arsenal to survive this. Period’.”

Sidner added: “And I have been so much happier in my life since … I mean happier than I was before cancer.”

The CNN anchor said she was “excited about whatever is coming, because I’m here.”

Sidner, who is nearing the end of her first round of chemotherapy treatments, has not missed a day of work, according to PEOPLE.

She appeared on the red carpet of the annual “CNN Heroes” gala just two days after the start of chemotherapy.

“I am fatigued and I am slower, and I have to be more thoughtful about how I take care of myself,” she said.

Sidner said her hair has started falling out as a result of her treatments.

“The bald truth is my hair’s coming out,” she said. “If I’m having a bad hair day, I know about it. If I’m having a good hair day, I also know about that.”

Sidner declared that she’s “loving living” because “I know it can be short.”

“I don’t know how this is going to end … [but] we have the ability to feel joy at any point as long as we’re breathing,” she said.

Sidner’s colleagues at CNN and other media outlets wished her well.

“Prayers up for ⁦@sarasidnerCNN,” Megyn Kelly wrote on her X social media account.

“Well done getting thru what must have been a very tough message here and God bless as you take on this challenge.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins wrote that she was “in awe of your strength.” Another CNN star, Dana Bash, wrote that Sidner was “simply amazing” due to her “strength” and “grace.”

“Cancer doesn’t know who it’s messing with,” Bash wrote.

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