On the heels of the huge Survivor reunion party at the Television Critics Association press tour two weeks ago comes sad news: Survivor: Palau’s Jennifer Lyon has died of cancer. She was 37.
Former Survivor: Gabon contestant Randy Bailey emailed TVGuide.ca editor Amber Dowling to deliver the news. Lyon revealed back in 2005 that she was battling Stage III breast cancer when she wrote a first-person account about it in People magazine.
Lyon is perhaps best remembered for her island romance with fellow Palau castaway Gregg Carey.
The blond competitor had detected lumps on her breasts in 2004 (prior to Palau’s taping), years after getting saline implants, but didn’t follow up with a physician because she didn’t have health insurance.
“At the time I noticed the lumps I didn’t have insurance, which was a big part of why I didn't get it checked immediately,” Lyon wrote in the magazine article.
“I went on the Internet and thought, ‘It is scar tissue. No big deal.’ But a year later, I felt another lump right in the centre of the breast and something in my right armpit. I saw a surgeon who said, ‘I'm pretty sure you have breast cancer.’ After a mammogram, an ultrasound and a biopsy, it was confirmed – Stage III.”
Lyon finished fourth on Survivor: Palau after she lost a Tribal Council tiebreaker challenge to eventual third-place finisher Ian Rosenberger.
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