Couple battling breast cancer to appear Friday on ‘Today’ show

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Mike Welsh and his wife, Barbara, inside their Monroe, Ohio, home Monday, Oct 5, 2009. Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year, and Mike was diagnosed with breast cancer four months ago.

Staff photo by Gary Stelzer Mike Welsh and his wife, Barbara, inside their Monroe, Ohio, home Monday, Oct 5, 2009. Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year, and Mike was diagnosed with breast cancer four months ago.

NBC morning TV show changed appearance time for husband and wife both battling breast cancer.

By Ed Richter, Staff Writer Updated 3:12 PM Thursday, October 22, 2009

MONROE — A local couple who both are battling breast cancer will be featured Friday morning, Oct. 23, on NBC’s “Today” show.

Mike and Barbara Welsh, who made national news with their stories about fighting breast cancer, will be on air between 8:09 and 8:30 a.m. Friday, Mike Welsh said. The TV show has twice changed the couple's appearance date.

Mike Welsh said his phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the story about him and his wife was published in The Middletown Journal and Hamilton JournalNews on Oct. 11 and was later picked up by The Associated Press.

“It’s been unnerving to say the least,” he said. “We went to church on Sunday (Oct.11) and went to Frisch’s for breakfast. People who saw the story wanted our autographs. It’s taken a life of its own.”

Welsh and his wife, Barbara, have been diagnosed, had surgery and have been continuing their cancer treatments.

In December 2008, Barbara, 63, found a lump on her right breast and had it removed in January 2009. She has undergone chemotherapy and is going through radiation treatment.

Mike, 62, found his breast cancer in June 2009 and had a modified radical mastectomy done on his right breast in July 2009.

n NBC camera crew were at The Compton Center at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown on Oct. 16 to interview their doctors and follow Barbara Welsh through one of her radiation treatments.

For the Welshes, the trip to The Big Apple will be exciting — neither has ridden in an airplane or  visited New York.

Welsh said they have also been booked to appear on “The Doctors” show in Los Angeles in early  November. Also, the Ohio News Network in Columbus wants to do a story on them, and they have been contacted by representatives from “Good Morning America” and the “Ellen” show, he said.

The Welshes also have received requests for radio interviews.

“I was just hoping that it would be just the article and that would be that,” he said.

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