Husband, wife with breast cancer share story on TV

Mike and Barbara Welsh returned home Friday evening following their morning 'Today' show appearance.

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By Ed Richter, Staff Writer Updated 5:51 AM Saturday, October 24, 2009

MONROE — After a couple of scheduling changes, a local couple who are both battling breast cancer appeared Friday, Oct. 23, on NBC’s “Today” show.

Mike and Barbara Welsh returned home late Friday afternoon after an overnight trip to New York City.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Mike Welsh said. “It was really nice. NBC treated us like gold out there.”

It was the first time either of them visited the Big Apple or flew on an airplane.

Welsh said he wanted to share with other men that while it’s rare, they, too, can get breast cancer. Welsh previously said he hoped to create that awareness and that if he could help 10 people or 100, “that’s a start.”

The fact that both Welshes are fighting their own breast cancer at the same time is unique and the reason it became national news.

“I’m hoping it makes a lot of men think,” he said. “Not a lot of men get it. Men should be vigilant and start looking for it. If you don’t know how, ask your doctor or have your wife, girlfriend or significant other help.”

Welsh said he and his wife were picked up Thursday in a limousine at home and taken to the Dayton International Airport to fly to New York.

From there, they were taken by limousine to the Essex House hotel across from Central Park, he said.

Welsh said at the “Today” studio, he met Maria Shriver and his wife met her favorite country music star, Tim McGraw.

“He gave her a hug and she gave him more of a hug than I get,” Mike Welsh said jokingly.

The Welshes were given a tour of NBC studios at 30 Rockefeller Center before their flight left for Dayton.

He said he’d like to return to New York to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the World Trade Center site.

The Welshes were interviewed by “Today’s” Natalie Morales and the segment also featured video footage of the couple’s doctor at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown and Barbara Welsh going through her radiation treatment.

“It was a really good experience,” Mike Welsh said. “I hope to get it across to men to look (at their bodies) as only they can prevent what I went through. Once men figure out what they’re looking for, we’ll make a lot of men safer and it will make all of this aggravation worthwhile.”