Heavy/Getty DWTS champion Hannah Brown opens up about her asthma.
Former “Dancing with the Stars” champion Hannah Brown has navigated some significant health challenges in her 29 years, and she is sharing her experience with one of them to help raise awareness.
From childhood cancer to narcolepsy, to asthma, “The Bachelorette” star has found ways to manage the challenges and keep pursuing her goals. In a new interview, the DWTS star just reiterated she’s not going to give up, even if she has to proceed a bit cautiously.
People detailed that the season 28 DWTS winner wrote in her 2021 book “God Bless This Mess” about her experience with pancreatic childhood cancer. A tumor was found and Brown wrote, “There was a chance we’d have to go through radiation and chemotherapy, they said, depending on what the surgeon found once they got me into the operating room.” Luckily, she added, “Miraculously, I didn’t need either one.”
Brown also wrote about her narcolepsy diagnosis in her book, noted Project Sleep. The “Dancing with the Stars” champion shared, “A few years ago I was diagnosed with narcolepsy… even when I think I’m getting a full night’s sleep, I’m not.” She explained, “I never get the deep sleep that humans need to feel fully rested. So I’m tired pretty much all the time.”
On top of those difficult conditions, the dancing champ has also dealt with asthma since she was a young child. In January, Brown mentioned a scary asthma attack she had experienced on an airplane in a chat with Us Weekly. Now, in a new interview, the former “Bachelorette” has shared more about how difficult it can be to manage her asthma.
Here’s what you need to know:
Hannah Brown Never Knows When an Asthma Attack Is Coming
Brown opened up to People about her experience with asthma. As she told fans about the People feature becoming available, Brown took to her Instagram Stories to add some additional context. She explained that while she has had asthma for much of her life, it has been much more challenging for her to manage over the past few years.
The former “Bachelorette” recalled the December 2022 incident where she experienced a severe asthma attack while on an airplane. Brown and her now-fiance, Adam Woolard, were flying to Oklahoma to spend time with his family. Suddenly, “I could feel my throat closing up… I was shaking uncontrollably and trying to grab my inhaler — but I couldn’t take in the air,” she recalled.
Woolard was extremely worried and brought over a flight attendant, who was able to provide Brown with oxygen while the flight’s path shifted to land in Dallas. Once the plane landed, Brown was taken away via a stretcher. The former “Dancing with the Stars” champ was scared and embarrassed, she told People, although she noted she had been dealing with asthma since she was 5 years old.
Brown explained that sometimes she has to “slow down or take a second to focus on my breath, because if I don’t, it can get to a place where it’s out of control — and an attack happens.” She finds asthma especially difficult as the attacks are “always a surprise. I never know when it’s coming.”
The DWTS Isn’t Letting Asthma Control Her Life Though
As scary as the plane incident was, an attack “The Bachelorette” star had as a child still sticks with her. When she was 9, Brown was attending a school party that had 400 burning candles spread around. The smoke caused Brown to start coughing, and it turned out she had not had her inhaler with her that day.
“There’s nothing worse than feeling that you can’t breathe or control yourself enough to calm down,” she detailed. Brown admitted, “Especially as a child, that’s really scary.”
The asthma sometimes impacted Brown’s experience in competing on Fox’s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” but she managed to win season 1. It turns out, the experience became “probably my favorite show,” as it “reminded me how strong I am and what I’m capable of.”
Asthma still impacts Brown’s day-to-day life, and she admitted it “doesn’t let me off the hook — it’s something I have to be aware of.” Despite that, the “Dancing with the Stars” champ insists “I won’t let it stop me or keep me from pursuing the things that are important to me.”
Brown has plenty of “dreams I have to chase,” and with the asthma, “I just chase them, one breath at a time.”