Celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson praised his community for coming together for his family during a time of serious need.
Peterson revealed his now five-year-old daughter Monroe’s cancer diagnosis in 2024 on social media, and was floored by the response from people all over the world who wanted to help his little girl.
Now she is in remission, and Peterson reflected on his daughter’s journey back to health after Monroe was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
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“Knock on wood, she is in remission,” Peterson said proudly during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “She still has a port in her chest for bimonthly infusions.
“She’s a trooper. Her hair is growing back. It’s not… I wouldn’t say she’s there yet, but she has no qualms about it, and she’s a thriving kindergartner.”
Peterson revealed a “life-changing turn” to his usual social media content in a May 2024 post when he shared Monroe’s diagnosis with his 421,000 followers.
After Monroe began experiencing strange symptoms, Peterson and his wife Janet immediately sought medical help and took her to the hospital, where she endured a number of procedures — including a spinal tap, chemotherapy and a bone marrow biopsy — before receiving her “AML leukemia” diagnosis.
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AML is defined by the American Cancer Society as a type of leukemia that “starts in the bone marrow (the soft inner part of certain bones, where new blood cells are made), but most often it quickly moves into the blood as well. It can sometimes spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and testicles.”
“Please hold our daughter, and our family-immediate and extended-in your hearts, thoughts, and prayers,” he wrote at the time. “As we are all aware; ‘you never know what someone is going through.’ Already too many thank yous owed so I will spread them out as this unfolds.”
The fitness expert’s call-to-action was answered in a big way. He told Fox News Digital that his family was already living in Nashville, Tennessee, when “this hit us square in the face.” But he noted that “it all worked out” because his daughter was treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“It was terrific for everything they could do for my daughter,” he said. “And then my wife is working with a lady named Susan Johnson [research nurse and nurse practitioner at Vanderbilt], alternative medicine, gut cleansing, gut biome.”
“Don’t mess with Mama Bear, she is on that, looking at everything, all kinds of alternative approaches,” he noted.
WATCH: GUNNAR PETERSON PRAISES ‘TERRIFIC NETWORK’ FOR HELPING HIS DAUGHTER AFTER CANCER DIAGNOSIS
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He also said his family was incredibly lucky to have a “terrific network” of people who reached out and offered help.
“We all know there are a lot of bad people in the world, but I can also say there are a lot of really good people in the world, and the way people come together over a cause and for a cause, especially for a child, is pretty amazing,” Peterson said.
“And we had great help from other institutions around in Texas, in New York, in California. We had people tapping their contacts for us, and we had direct outreach from heads of pediatric oncology in different places.”
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He added, “I would encourage anybody who goes through anything to reach out to anyone you have because people will step up, and you will be surprised. And don’t sit there and think you’re alone because, yeah, there are lonely times, but you’re not alone. You are not.”
“There are a lot of good people who can help, and it’s not people necessarily that you think, it’s people that are maybe even on the bubble of your life, right? And they’ll say, ‘Hey, by the way, I have a friend who’s connected to this,’ and you’re like, ‘You do?’ And it’s wild.”
Now further in the clear, Peterson praised his wife’s tenacity when it came to advocating for their daughter during the difficult medical journey.
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“My wife ran the point on that in a big way, and I think it’s what all mothers and fathers and caretakers do,” he said. “And you can’t do it without the staff at the hospital that just pours into it. Those people are they have a special place. Yeah, they’re pretty impressive.”
Peterson uses some of his own training techniques when it comes to her recovery, of course. The former director of strength and endurance for the Los Angeles Lakers, who has decades of experience under his belt, highlighted the unique benefits of Solbasium red-light therapy.
Solbasium’s red-light therapy technology helps reduce inflammation, speed muscle recovery, improve skin healing and support overall wellness.
Holding up Solbasium body pads, Peterson said, “I will use this on my daughter. I will use this on my son… if his quads are tired from a game, and he has two games back-to-back in a soccer tournament, I will hit him with this. If he rolls his ankle, I will put this cuff on him.”
Peterson admitted he was initially emotional that “cancer stole a year” of Monroe’s life, but said his daughter now talks about her journey, even though her young mind might not remember the events specifically.
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“Interestingly enough, she seems to be referring more to pictures of herself than actual events, and the people at the hospital said she probably won’t remember this in a couple years,” Peterson said.
“Oh I go, ‘How’s that possible?’ They go, ‘What do you remember from when you were 4?’ And I was like, OK, but… we’ll remember it, but they said she probably won’t have the full… it’s just strange to me. How do you not remember what you just went through?”
Peterson added that while it seems strange his daughter may not remember the experience when she’s older, he says, “We’ll take it… The body heals and the mind heals too.”
