Dawson’s Creek star Busy Philipps said she’s “grateful to be alive” after discovering she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour.
The actress, 47, revealed she was diagnosed in February after undergoing a brain scan, the day after her own co-star James Van Der Beek had passed from cancer.
Mean Girls star Busy Philipps has survived a brain cancer diagnosis. Getty
Van Der Beek, who died at age 48, inspired Philipps to keep the appointment, the actress told PEOPLE, as she opened up about her diagnosis for the first time.
It was “the weirdest six months of my life”, she told the publication.
Despite no obvious symptoms, doctors discovered the grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumour that’s found in just 135 people in Australia per year.
The Cougar Town actress recalled the night Van Der Beek passed, on February 11 from colon cancer, the day before her life-saving scan.
“That night, I went to dinner with some friends and was sort of processing,” she told the outlet. “He’s my second friend in just a few years that has died far too young from cancer.”
She knew she had the MRI scan booked the next day, but considered cancelling it while she was both grieving and had an audition the next day.
But her ex-husband and close friend, Marc Silverstein, said the one thing that would change her mind: “Maybe it’s the best thing you can do for your friend. Go get that scan.”
The MRI results came in. She recalled the doctor asking if she could jump on a phone call.
The actress shared a look into her recovery journey. Instagram/@liviyakraemer
Further tests and a second phone call revealed: “This is a real tumour, and it’s inside your brain. Busy, you’ve got to take it out.”
Philipps told the publication she was “hyperventilating and trying to breathe”.
She recalled feeling “really scared” to have the hard talk with her daughters, Birdie, 17, and Cricket, 13, who she shares with her ex-husband.
She “promised” them their mum wasn’t going to die.
The actress had to undergo two brain surgeries. Instagram/@liviyakraemer
She underwent two surgeries, the first a five-hour procedure that saw doctors remove a 2.6 cm mass from her brain.
She had her second surgery in March, just 24 hours before filming her new show Cupertino.
Having caught the tumour before it progressed, the actress doesn’t need chemotherapy or radiation. She will require regular scans to monitor for an unlikely recurrence.
James Van Der Beek and Busy Philipps on the set of Dawson’s Creek Instagram/@busyphilipps
Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Busy then explained that for the past six months she had been keeping her loved ones up to date on her surgeries through the Close Friends option on the platform.
She didn’t share the news publicly at first to protect her kids.
“I wanted to make sure I was OK and everything was OK before I talked about it,” she said.
Philipps with oldest daughter Birdie. Instagram
The other reason being, she had to start filming her new show Cupertino four and a half weeks after her surgery.
“And I just had to f–king lock in and just get through it.”
She shared an old video of her friend “washing the blood out” of her hair so she could film Cupertino just 24 hours later.
She revealed at the time it felt like “a stupid amount of money” to spend on a scan.
Thanking her doctors and nurses she was very glad she did the scan anyway.