Hoping to clear up erroneous media reports that she claimed to be “absolutely cancer free,” Valerie Harper, while on a press junket in New York City for her guest-staring role on Hallmark Channel’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered, clarified her original statement to Closer Weekly that was the apparent source of the confusion.
Valerie Harper offered this statement:
“I am grateful for an opportunity to bring clarity to the story in this week’s Closer Weekly and, more importantly, to address the headline which states that I am cancer free. I am not cancer free. As I have stated on many occasions, I have Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis (Lepto), lung cancer that has traveled to the meninges around my brain. While speaking to the reporter for Closer Weekly, I was relaying a story where my doctor had told me that in his 30 year practice, I was the only Lepto patient he has seen without other cancers already present. I had just had my yearly full-body scan to determine if this sneaky cancer had migrated to other parts of my body. Therefore, in completing that part of the story, I told the reporter with excitement that I was cancer-free, but what I meant to say was that my full body scan revealed that I was still thankfully cancer free. What all parties want to be made clear now is that while the Lepto has not spread, I am still not cured. I am a cancer patient, and I continue to fight with the hope that a cure may be just around the corner.
“I am grateful to my family, friends, loved ones, and to fans that I am in their thoughts and prayers. That support gives me great hope.”
Valerie Harper will guest-star in a two-episode story arc on Hallmark Channel’s new original series Signed, Sealed, Delivered. The series premieres on the network April 20 at 8pm ET/PT.
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Valerie Harper (center) with the cast of Signed, Sealed, Delivered: © 2014 Crown Media United States LLC. Credit: Katie Yu
