Anna Umemiya (52), a media personality who announced that she had breast cancer in August last year, appeared at a talk event in Tokyo on the 1st and spoke about her fierce battle with cancer, occasionally shedding tears.

Umemiya was suffering from stage 3 invasive lobular carcinoma. The most shocking thing about her fight against the disease was that her hair fell out due to the chemotherapy. "I hung in there with the doctor until the very end, saying, 'Are you sure it's going to fall out? You might be the only person whose hair won't fall out,' and he said, 'Unfortunately, it will fall out,'" she explained, revealing the heartbreaking feelings he had at the time. "My mother was crying (when her hair fell out). I was experiencing emotions and feelings that I had never experienced before in my life," she explained.

She underwent surgery in November last year. When the topic turned to the fact that she only had one more chemotherapy treatment, she burst into tears and said, "I'm sorry, I'm going to cry," revealing the severity of her long battle with the disease. After talking for about an hour, she concluded by saying, "I hope my experience can help someone," expressing her desire to support those who are also struggling with the disease.

Umemiya confessed to her illness in a memoir on the Shufu no Tomosha website in August last year. Shufu no Tomosha and the Mainichi Shimbun are holding a project to empower all women, "Be Me ~ Self-care City Spring ~" on the 1st and 2nd.