dr. mckenna told me, it hits them 20 years later. i want to get that message out.s something i can do. i can tell people keep your chin up, don't go to the funeral, mine or yours or your loved ones until the day of the funeral. then you miss the life you have left. so, i really feel this is kind of an opportunity and also a responsibility. >> there was a wonderful line there -- a wonderful line i want to read you from the original three "mary tyler moore" shows. mary is who you wish you were. rhoda is who you are and phyllis is the one you become. it explains why people feel so vested in what's happened to you. so many people related to you on a human level. you were the kind of person they could be. >> that's right. she was familiar. she would say anything. she was funny. greatest comedy writers in the world putting jokes in rhoda's mouth. there was a recognition that she could be your neighbor or the gal at the drugstore behind the counter. it was a wonderful character to play. i was privileged to do it nine years. so, yeah, it's true, piers. that is connected. >

dr. mckenna invented it his team has done over 3,000 procedures.t's amazing. >> what i understand, the doctor, when you realized it was a terminal condition that you had, he first told your husband of 34 years, tony. and tony decided for a while not to tell you. how long was it before he finally told you? >> i think it was a week or two, i remember. because i could feel something going on with my friends and with, you know, there was like an elephant in the room slightly, a small one, but tony was told at the hospital in new york. there's nothing we can do for her. and in fact, there hasn't been. it is incurable so far. and then we -- he told me and i felt better actually, piers, to know what i was dealing with why was i feeling so good in the meds they had me on, two a day, not like a huge cocktail or -- it seems so simple and my life is the same. i'm exercising, i am walking, i'm doing book tours. i'm just living my life. >> valerie, i have never seen anybody who -- i have known some people in my life who have been diagnosed with a terminal condi

dr. mckenna gave me that and now dr. natally and dr.f trying to help me with this. so after this little course, short course of chemo, that's designed to get throughs the blood/brain barrier if you understand what that is. >> yeah. >> that's this protective coating, that infection and bacteria don't get through, but neither does chemo, except certain designed ones. they're now working on medicine, rather than chemo, that gets to my particular cancer. every cancer cell has its own dna. who knew? i certainly didn't. and markers. and they are working from my tumor of four years ago, looking at it, biopsying it and trying to develop something specifically for me. not because i'm an actor or people know me, but because i'm a cancer patient. >> when you look back, valerie, over this extraordinary life and career you've had, what has been the greatest moment for you? if i could replay a moment for you now, what would you choose? >> oh, my goodness. my husband telling me that he thought we should adopt. because i would make a great mother. that

dr. mckenna of cedars-sinai and then i'm back add cedars again, i was on with you guys in january when wegreat hospitals there, roosevelt and then sloan, they both said this is what we think it is so i came home where i would be comfortable and settled and really had to drop out of my tour which stefanie powers is doing right now. >> uh-huh. >> yeah, she's tallulah and carrying on which was great and that's a lot of jobs. you know how you feel about that. the crew -- >> yeah. >> you don't want a show to close so that's good and the book is continuing, but i am doing book readings, i'm going to the movies with my husband. i'm living very normally thanks to some stabilizing two pills only, morning and night and i'm feeling really good and while i am, because it is a brain situation and where i can talk to people, i thought let the extended family know at the same time one message through "people" magazine to get it out there and then let's discuss it which is we're all terminal. we really are, and we have a lot of fear around death and i thought, maybe i can help somebody if somebody doesn'