Martina Navratilova Shocker: I Have Breast Cancer (video)

Tennis star Martina Navratilova, who has always been a picture of fitness and health, disclosed today (Apr. 7) that she has breast cancer, but said the discovery of the disease had some good news mixed in with the bad news.

Navratilova, an AARP health and fitness ambassador, who counsels on the importance of fitness as we grow older, revealed her affliction during an interview this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

She told host, Robin Roberts, who also suffered from breast cancer, that she was devastated by the diagnosis and for a time was emotionally paralyzed. She called it her “personal 9/11.”

The good news, she said, was the fact that it was caught early and was discovered to be a non-invasive form of the cancer, which greatly increases her chances of remaining in remission following treatment.

Navratilova also said she was fortunate that it was caught early because she stopped having yearly mammograms about four years ago.

The disease developed less than year ago. Had she contracted the disease three years ago, it would have been far more serious, she said.

She decided to go public to urge women to continue to get breast exams, and expressed outrage at the recent determination that women did not need yearly exams until after age 50.

The 18-time tennis grand slam champion said she had a lumpectomy three weeks ago, and will undergo six weeks of radiation treatment. After that, she said there is only a 10 percent change the disease will recur.

She has remained physically active throughout most of the ordeal, playing tennis and her new passion hockey.

She will do a web chat about her ordeal Thursday (Apr. 8) on AARP’s Web site.