Wanda Dench, ‘the Thanksgiving grandmother’, confirms the diagnosis of breast cancer

Arizona grandmother Wanda Dench, who first rose to fame after her accidental Thanksgiving text in 2016 led her to annual reunions with her then-new boyfriend Jamal Hinton, has just revealed that she have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

In a post shared on social media by Hinton, Dench writes: “This year I had bronchitis and had a CT scan to check my lungs.”

She continued in the message, writing: “A lump was found in my breast and they suggested I get a mammogram and it confirmed I had breast cancer.”

Dench said she wanted to share the story of her health journey in October, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“I’ve learned a lot of life lessons through all of this, but what I want to stress most of all is just because you can be old, we still have one life to live,” she wrote.

For years now, Dench and Hinton have entered the lives of those who surf the web and social media every year after they met and their story went viral.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | “Thanksgiving Grandma” and the wrong text friend reunite for the eighth year

Now known as “Thanksgiving Grandma,” she and the boy she accidentally texted, Hinton, mistaking her number for his grandson’s, get together year after year for Thanksgiving. thank you Last year, they added a new guest to their celebration with the help of Airbnb.

Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton started this tradition in 2016 and have kept it going, even after Wanda’s husband passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, it was announced that Netflix would make a film inspired by the story of Hinton and Dench’s unlikely friendship. The intended title for the film was revealed as “The Thanksgiving Text”.

The pair have also partnered on business ventures, including launching a brand of alkaline water by 2022.