Danielle Fishel feels "thrilled to be alive" amid her recovery from breast cancer

Speaking about her health scare, Danielle told PEOPLE: "I was feeling healthy, I was looking healthy. But I went in for my mammogram and they said it looked suspicious and the results are abnormal.

"I was not expecting in any way that it was going to find anything. It was really shocking."

Danielle - who is best known for playing Topanga Lawrence on the teen sitcom 'Boy Meets World' - underwent surgery for a second time last month.

The actress subsequently received the all-clear to return to work.

She shared: "That pathology came back with no cancer found. I've since had a clear mammogram. I'm feeling really well. I'm just grateful that the surgery part is behind me.

"Now moving forward, I still have to make a decision about radiation and I will most likely be starting hormone therapy."

Danielle is now determined to use her platform to encourage other people to pay closer attention to their own health.

She said: "When I was trying to make the decision about whether or not I wanted to talk about it publicly, my first instinct was to just keep it quiet, not tell anybody and just get through it. Suffer through it alone.

"But it was like, okay, I have the ability to go out there and tell a large amount of people that had it not been for me being so on top of my yearly check-up, I may not have found this.

"Had I said, 'I did my mammogram last year, I was totally fine. What are the odds that in one year I'm going to have anything? I'll be fine. I'll put it off,' it could have been much worse for me."