(Photo Credit: PR Photos)
On a recent episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta, Gregg Leakes, along with wife NeNe, visited the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to review his treatment choices.
Leakes, who’s battling colon cancer, revealed he did not want to undergo chemotherapy as the doctor suggested.
“Obviously we hear all the reports of people doing chemo and being very sick,” NeNe said. “So he feels like if there’s any other options that can take, I’d rather take those options and let chemo sit on the back burner for now.”
As reported by People, Gregg was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer earlier this year. NeNe recently explained on the Bravo series that Gregg first experienced symptoms in May.
“It was Cinco de Mayo,” she said on last Sunday’s episode. “Gregg was in excruciating pain. Like, I’ve never seen him say, ‘I’m hurting so bad, the pain is so bad in my stomach.’ And finally he said to me, ‘Take me to the hospital.’ “
After her husband’s diagnosis, he had to undergo emergency surgery to have part of his colon removed.
“We just weren’t prepared to hear that,” NeNe recalled.
“I guess the scariest part about all of this is when we got to the hospital and the doctor saying that we need to do surgery on you tonight or you ain’t going to make it,” said Gregg.
The doctor suggested chemo to help reduce the risk of cancer returning, even though test results showed Gregg was currently cancer-free.
Gregg and NeNe are now considering alternative medicine because they’ve watched chemo “destroy people.”
“I’m deciding to really take my life and use it as a mouthpiece for other people,” Gregg explained. “I just want to use my life in a way to help someone. So I can say, ‘I’m Gregg and I have cancer,’ but I will be a survivor.”
