Kelly Powers, a Fox News commentator and a podiatric surgeon who offered health tips and discussed medical news with viewers, as well as telling them of her own experiences with cancer, died on Sunday at her home in Colts Neck, N.J. She was 45.
The cause was brain cancer, her mother, Joan Powers, said.
Dr. Powers appeared as a medical expert on Fox Business and Fox News throughout the 2010s, contributing to “Fox & Friends” and the talk show “Red Eye,” among other programs. She had emergency surgery in 2018 after doctors found fluid around her heart; it was the start of years of life-threatening health crises.
In July 2020, Dr. Powers had a seizure and was diagnosed with the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma. She had three brain surgeries and received chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy, as her family described her treatment on a GoFundMe page, but the cancer returned and another mass was found in her brain this year.
Kelly Ann Powers was born in Yonkers, N.Y., on May 13, 1979, to Joseph and Joan Marie Powers.
She attended Baruch College and the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, both in Manhattan, and obtained a master’s degree at the University of San Francisco. She completed her residencies at Georgetown and Boston Universities.
Dr. Powers began appearing on TV news programs early in her career to discuss medical breakthroughs and give health advice.
She became a regular on Fox News, where she offered practical health tips to viewers, including diet options and advice on body pains. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, she appeared on Fox Business to talk about the virus and vaccine development.
After her diagnosis in 2020, Dr. Powers began to document her health journey on social media and spoke about it on TV. She called herself the “unluckiest lucky girl” because her cancer was caught early.
Amid her health challenges, Dr. Powers and her husband, Steven Doll, wanted to have a baby. But her cardiologist told her that she should not carry a child, so they chose to use a surrogate, she said in a 2023 iHeart Radio interview.
Her son, Bennett, was born in 2021 while Dr. Powers continued to receive treatments. Her parents, husband and son survive her.
During this time, Dr. Powers used her platform to talk about brain cancer research and raise money for medical nonprofits.
“This horrible disease needs to stop, and we all need to just fight cancer in general, every type of cancer,” she said on Instagram in June. “Why is this even still a problem?”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed reporting.lolliplay