Hoda Kotb's powerful advice on breast cancer and mastectomy scars

When Hoda Kotb found out she had breast cancer in early 2007, she considered keeping the diagnosis a secret.

The TODAY co-anchor was 43 years old at the time. She feared that people would look at her with pity, and she found it difficult to accept the news herself. As a journalist, it is difficult to make her private life public, she noted.

“I didn't want to say anything about it and wanted to forget about it, but someone encouraged me to say something,” Hoda recalled in March.

In October 2007, Hoda announced her diagnosis to TODAY. The response was overwhelming: women hugged her on the street and some told her she inspired them to get their first mammogram.

Since then, Hoda has spoken openly about the scars from her mastectomy, the impact on her self-image and how the disease has affected her fertility. She has also shared the positive changes she has made and noticed as a survivor.

Here are some of Hoda's most powerful advice for dealing with breast cancer:

“I became fearless”

Sometimes the scariest thing in the world — like cancer — becomes what makes you fearless, Hoda said.

Around the time she found out she was sick, TODAY added the fourth hour to its schedule. Hoda decided to approach The Boss to introduce herself as a co-host – something she would have been reluctant to do before her diagnosis. But knowing her life could be cut short made her “deeply fearless.”

She got the job.

“I thought, 'Oh my God, if I hadn't gotten sick, I wouldn't have been brave, and if I hadn't been brave, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be here,'” she recalled.

“You can’t scare me.”

When he asked for and got the job, Hoda had a revelation about work and everything else in life: Most of his fears were minor compared to cancer.

Four words became her mantra: “You can’t scare me.”

“Because the worst had happened. What now? Now what am I afraid of?” She remembered, “Not being afraid freed me.” It set me free.”

Another mantra: “Go forward.”

“You never know what lies ahead unless you put in a little effort,” she said.

If you could take a pill and be completely brave, what would you do right now that you're afraid of? “That gives you the diagnosis,” Hoda explained.

“Your life will soon get much better”

There is life before cancer and life after.

“I'm here to tell you that your second life will be so much better than the first,” Hoda wrote a year after her diagnosis.

“A funny thing happened as my body began to heal – and so did my mind. The world suddenly became clear. Everything important became completely clear, as did the negative parts of my life that I needed to let go of.”

Hoda described her life after cancer as “more honest and fulfilling” than her life before.

“Little things don't matter so much because you get rid of the people in your life who hurt you because you hold on to the ones who help you,” she said.

“Share your journey with others”

A chance encounter with a man on a flight in 2007 had a major impact on Hoda. She was in the middle of the treatment and was about to go to sleep when he started a conversation.

They started talking about her cancer.

“He said, 'Breast cancer is a part of you,'” Hoda recalls. “He said, 'It's like going to college or getting married or working at NBC.' I’ll never forget what he said.”

“Don’t stress your trip,” fellow traveler Ken Duane recalled. “Share your journey with others and you are a role model. Think about what you can achieve.”

Hoda said that statement changed her life and made her realize she could help other women.

“See your scars as: the cancer is gone”

Hoda said she was “horrified” when she first saw the scars from her eight-hour surgery, which included a mastectomy and reconstruction.

But she felt better when she met another woman who had the same surgery and similar scars. This made her realize that they are a reminder that the cancer is gone.

“When your body heals, you feel better. You realize you don't care about the scars. You're just happy to have this body, a healthy body,” she wrote.

“If you're worried about your appearance, you shouldn't focus on yourself,” Hoda added.

“The best way to prevent your appearance from affecting your feelings after cancer is to keep yourself out of the spotlight. When I feel bad about the way I look or whatever I'm going through, I remind myself that there's always someone else going through a harder time.”

“Cancer shaped me, but didn’t define me”

“It’s a part of me, but not all of me,” Hoda said.

“If you survive breast cancer, it could be the best thing that has ever happened to you because suddenly you are empowered; because you now have strength; because you realize that your life has limits – it needs to be valued and not wasted.”

Seventeen years after her diagnosis, she continues to inspire other women.