Former Britney Spears Back-up Dancer Criscilla Anderson, 43, Celebrates Love With Husband Coffey, 45, Love As She Fights Advanced Colon Cancer (2024)

Read More

Criscilla captioned her popular social media post that’s garnered thousands of likes, “You my lil boo thang. Find you someone that will dance with you!”

The video shows a snippet of Criscilla and Coffey performing a choreographed dance routine. Once it ends, Criscilla gleefully smiles, and Coffey playfully holds his back as if he’s in pain.

Fans of the “Country Forever” couple eagerly chimed in on their dance moves.

“Why is Fey acting like he pulled out his back at the end?! Pull it together, Coffey Anderson. I love this video!! Get it, fam!!” Instagram user Carisse Mak commented.

“You can see who is a professional hip-hop dancer. Look at those hips girl!” Shannon Miller wrote as a comment.

Coffey is best known for popular country songs like “Mr. Red, White, and Blue,” and “American Made.” After seeing the fun commentary on the popular social media video, he chimed in to say with levity, “I look like a giraffe next to a cheetah. You’re awesome, honey.”

The cute couple gained popularity from their reality TV show, “Country Ever After.” The show followed the couple and their family as they juggled caring for their kids and their careers. During the show, Criscilla’s cancer journey was a recurrent storyline. Several episodes were dedicated to her undergoing chemotherapy and into remission. Throughout her emotional rollercoaster stemming from her cancer diagnosis, her loving husband Coffey always supported her.

Criscilla’s Cancer Journey

Criscilla has been open about her stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis, which came in 2018. Stage 4 colon cancer means the cancer has spread beyond the colon and onto other parts of the body.

Criscilla underwent years of treatment including chemotherapy which helped shrink her tumors. Coffey posted to social media everything his wife had been through. He also credited her resilience for not giving up.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Criscilla💗 (@criscilla)

In the Instagram post, Coffey said, “I applaud you for NOT giving up, never stopping, or throwing in the towel. Chemo treatments, 15 pills a day, neuropathy, cramping, natural treatments in Mexico, IV hydration, Ozone, and missing the last day of school for your babies hurts your heart more than any needle,” Coffey wrote.

“Looking at your sleep with tears in my eyes, I applaud you. Life has dealt you an unfair hand and you have danced on its head most days,” he continued.

Coffey recalled the moment his wife’s scan’s found no evidence of disease in late 2021.

“I walked in and Criscilla was crying, and after four summers of going through this, you just never expect good news,”Coffey told People Magazine. “She told me that the doctor had said she had reached no evidence of disease. It took me about 15 minutes to grasp. My phone dropped out of my hand and my shoulders dropped and I just felt my body starting to realize the gravity of it,” Coffey said.

However, a few months later in early 2022, Criscilla’s cancer had returned in her lymph nodes.

“The thing with cancer is that the chances of it returning are very, very high,” she said. “That’s why it’s always been important for me to not only celebrate all the victories but prepare my mind for a bad scan, which takes us right back to the drawing board. It’s almost like I have to treat the cancer like a chronic disease,” she added.

Despite her ongoing cancer journey, Criscilla and Coffey aren’t letting the disease get the best of them. The couple is relying on the love and support of each other and their faith to continue pushing forward. It’s also not a surprise to know they try to keep themselves in a positive mindset despite Criscilla’s advanced cancer.

A Positive Mindset and Cancer Patients

“Patients with positive attitudes are better able to cope with disease-related problems and may respond better to therapy,” says Dr. Ernest H. Rosenbaum, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Rosenbaum noted a growing shift towards including the mindset of cancer patients as part of their physical treatment. He points to how patients with the same diagnosis and similar physical traits can see “vastly different results” when one patient is “pessimistic and the other is optimistic.”

Dr. Samantha Boardman, a New York-based psychiatrist, stresses the value of positive psychology which means focusing on encouraging feelings and finding what brings you a sense of vitality, as opposed to focusing on the illness.

Dr. Boardman says positive psychology is a different approach to managing your mental health. This approach can be massively beneficial to people who are dealing with an illness like cancer because it focuses on finding those great parts of life.

WATCH: What is positive psychology?

While many physicians and mental health professionals encourage practicing positivity when faced with something like cancer, not everyone agrees it helps. A 2010 study by Dr. James Coyne from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Dr. Howard Tennen from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine examined the notion positive psychology leads to positive outcomes for cancer patients.

The researchers said positive psychology and similar tactics to lift the emotional spirit among cancer patients “do not fit with available evidence” and encourage positive psychologists to base their claims on “scientific evidence” instead.

Although not all experts agree on the impact a positive attitude has on cancer, known coping mechanisms to help manage your emotions while battling cancer is less disputed.

A cancer diagnosis impacts both the patient and their loved ones albeit differently. Most notably, a diagnosis brings with it a string of wide-ranging emotions from sadness to anxiety which can be fluid according to psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik.

“The patient or person going through the stressful event should accept that emotions will be fluid. You may feel fine one day and then feel a massive wave of stress the next. It’s also important for those you look to for support whether that’s a therapist, friends, and family, or both to understand the fluidity of stress-related emotions,” Dr. Plutchik said.

If you are coping with a stressful diagnosis, SurvivorNet recommends checking in on your mental health. Your mindset impacts your ability to cope, and the added stress may require the assistance of amental healthprofessional. This could mean traditional talk therapy, medication, changing lifestyle habits (like exercise and diet), seeking out a support group, or many other approaches.

Understanding Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is very treatable and curable if caught early. Colon cancer screenings can involve at-home tests such as Cologuard, but a colonoscopy is more effective according to SurvivorNet experts. A colonoscopy involves a long thin tube attached to a camera that is used to examine the colon and rectum. If no polyps are discovered, the next screening won’t be needed for 10 years. Polyps are small growths in the colon that are not yet cancerous but have the potential to develop into cancer.

“When we see a polyp, we actually physically take the polyp out through the colonoscope,” Dr. Zuri Murrell,a colorectal cancer surgeon and Director of the Cedars-Sinai Colorectal Cancer Centerexplained.

The cancer starts when abnormal lumps called polyps grow in the colon or rectum. It takes up to 10 years for a colon polyp to become full-blown cancer, according to SurvivorNet experts.

The American Gastrointestinal Association lowered the recommended initial age for a colorectal screening from 50 to 45. However, experts recommend screening earlier for some people who may be at an increased risk of developing colon cancer.

WATCH: Colon cancer symptoms.

The most poignant signature of colon cancer includes a change in bowel habits. This may include constipation or diarrhea to changes in the size or shape of bowel movements. A change in stool color, particularly black or tarry stools, can indicate bleeding from a tumor that lies deep in the colon.

Other symptoms can be harder to pinpoint, such as abdominal pain and unintentional weight loss. Finally, some tumors bleed a small amount over a long period of time, resulting in anemia (low red blood cell count) that is picked up on blood work.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

If you are facing a colon cancer diagnosis, here are some questions you may ask your doctor.

• What are my treatment options based on my diagnosis?
• If I’m worried about managing the costs of cancer care, who can help me?
• What support services are available to me? To my family?
• Could this treatment affect my sex life? If so, how and for how long?
• What are the risks and possible side effects of treatment?

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Kavontae Smalls is a writer and reporter for SurvivorNet. Read More