Cancer Survivor Robin Roberts Reveals Greatest Life Lesson Is ‘Just Don’t Compare Your Despair’

She’s been quite the fighter in her life, as she has beaten cancer — and now Robin Roberts is revealing the great life lesson she’s come to learn through it all.

“Just don’t compare your despair. I know everyone always feels that what they’re going through is the biggest [thing] or is bigger than somebody else’s or something like that. I don’t think that you should compare because truly everybody’s got something,” the 59-year-old exclusively told Closer Weekly while attending Lifetime’s Stolen My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story premiere on Monday, January 13.

“I’m a living, breathing example of ‘This too shall pass.’ I have a little placard in my dressing room that says ‘this too shall pass … now would be good,'” the iconic newscaster continued. “We want to get through it, but I understand that the reason why things are placed in our path is for us to learn from and to share with others.”

The former ESPN sportscaster has not only won her battle against breast cancer, but she also fought myelodysplastic syndrome — which is a disease that affects the body’s bone marrow. “I don’t try to be like people who have had life-threatening illnesses and say, ‘Every day is a gift.’ But everything that happens from now on is lagniappe, as we say in the Gulf,” the TV personality once said during an interview with AARP magazine. Robin took four months off to deal with her bone marrow transplant, only to return to her job quite quickly.

“Some people [said], ‘Why were you in such a hurry to get back?’ It wasn’t about being back on TV. It was about being back in life,” Robin added. “I could’ve stayed longer in an isolated room, but I didn’t want life to continue to pass me by. I wanted to participate in life.”

This week Robin is celebrating 30 years since the day she first found herself on the Good Morning America desk. All we can say is that it’s been one incredible journey!

For more on your favorite celebs, pick up the latest issue of Closer Weekly, on newsstands now — and be sure to sign up for our newsletter for more exclusive news!