Andrea Mitchell took a few moments at the end of her show on Wednesday to announce that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer. "I had planned to be hiking in Wyoming last week," Mitchell said, "but instead discovered that I am now among the one in eight women in this country--incredibly, one in eight--who have had breast cancer. Mine was discovered during my annual screening just a short time ago. Luckily for me I am one of the fortunate ones. We discovered it in the earliest stage. It had not spread, and I’m already back at work with a terrific prognosis."

Mitchell's announcement was immediately met by well wishes from across the Twitterverse. "Thoughts and love to Andrea Mitchell #breastcancerawareness," said Arianna Huffington. "Andrea Mitchell once again shares her gifts of toughness and tenacity. Add to that courage. Love and prayers to my friend," wrote Gwen Ifill from PBS. But the most powerful message, some said, had as much to do with how Mitchell made the announcement--on air, encouraging women to receive screenings. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz tweeted, "Love & prayers to @mitchellreports as sister survivor of #breastcancer. Bravely sharing personal story of early detection will save lives."

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Adam Clark Estes