Guiding Light star Kim Zimmer reveals she's undergoing treatment for breast cancer: 'Get your mammograms'

Guiding Light actress Kim Zimmer, whose character Reva Shayne was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, is facing a real-life diagnosis of the disease.

"I was diagnosed with breast cancer on Nov. 6," she revealed on the special Daytime Stands Up: A Benefit for Stand Up To Cancer - We All Have a Story, that streamed live Thursday.

Zimmer explained that she had undergone a mastectomy and expected to have her last chemotherapy infusion on May 21.

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Visibly emotional, Zimmer said that her family and friends have been supportive and that she "would have fallen apart," if not for them.

Since 1981, Zimmer has been married to actor A.C. Weary, and they share three adult children, including actor Jake Weary. She said her children call her every day.

She reminded people that they should do themselves a favor and go to the doctor for screenings.

"I'm here to say early detection, early detection, early detection, early detection," she said. "Get your mammograms, get them soon."

Zimmer, 69, has also worked on One Life to Live and Santa Barbara. In the '80s and '90s, she guest-starred on Seinfeld, Designing Women, and MacGyver.

When she was asked about the biggest challenge of portraying her character during the breast cancer storyline, Zimmer said that it was that the character chose not to share her diagnosis with loved ones. She couldn't relate.

"I can't imagine getting a diagnosis like that and not wanting the person that you love most in the world to be there standing next to you," she said. "The fans reacted to that too... It made for great drama."

Guiding Light went off the air in 2009, after 57 seasons on TV.