Inspirational rower Erin Kennedy inspired Good Morning Britain viewers with her moving interview on Tuesday.
The sports star, 30, appeared on the ITV show to discuss winning gold alongside Britain’s para rowers at the multi-sport European Championships in Munich over the weekend - just three months on from being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Erin led her boat team to victory in the middle of her treatment - taking a break from chemotherapy to join teammates Francesca Allen, Oliver Stanhope, Edward Fuller and Giedre Rakauskaite to help cap a memorable weekend for British Rowing at Munich’s 1972 Olympic Regatta Centre.
Speaking to Charlotte Hawkins and Robert Rinder t his morning [August 16], the inspirational rower recalled her journey to gold, telling the hosts: "I got diagnosed on the Wednesday & I flew out to compete with the team on the Thursday."
She went on to explain how her diagnosis at 29 came as a "shock", after going to get a lump checked by her doctors, and added that while she had always been proactive, "you don't catastrophise" so the news still came as a shock.
Recalling flying out to join her teammates just hours after getting her diagnosis, Erin went on to say it was "the right thing to do" - explaining how rowing is a team sport and she knew her fellow rowers would "pick me up and support me".
"You're a winner in every sense of the word," Rob told the inspirational star - adding he felt he also spoke for "millions of others" as he praised Erin. "Not just because you won by a mile, it's also right to say you've raised awareness."
Viewers watching at home were in agreement with the presenter, with many taking to social media to share their thoughts on Erin's interview shortly after it aired.
"Incredible listening to Erin Kennedy talking about her cancer diagnosis & chemotherapy journey on @GMB this morning. What a great woman! #GMB," one viewer wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
"what an inspiration Erin Kennedy is," another added, while a third quipped: "Tory’s look away now - If only the Gov. (Raab, Johnson) had this level of determination and grit."
Speaking about her diagnosis prior to winning over the weekend, Erin explained to the Olympics website how she wasn't going to "basically go home and sit and wallow" after receiving her breast cancer diagnosis.
"They don't they don't beat around the bush. It is straight in with the information and that was a lot to take in," she told the site when recalling first being told she had breast cancer.
"All of a sudden, there's words that you've heard of and you don't know what they mean. But I knew pretty much that I would be needing a kind of intervention, chemotherapy and some sort of surgery down the line and depending on the surgery, maybe some radiotherapy."
She added: "Genuinely, and I'm not even saying this to be dramatic, I was like, 'What about rowing because it's a fundamental part of my life?' It's not something that I would ever want to just walk away from. I wasn't just going to basically go home and sit and wallow."
