Days of Our Lives Star Suzanne Rogers Is in Remission from Cancer, Reveals How Diagnosis Changed Her Outlook (Exclusive)

Suzanne Rogers is in remission after being diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer earlier this year.

While speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at Peacock’s Days of our Lives 60th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 8, the veteran actress, 82 — who has played Maggie Horton on the beloved show for 52 years — discussed her health following the diagnosis this summer.

“I’m feeling so much better. I mean, my summer was rough. I had cancer removed, radiation, that was tough. But I didn’t lose my hair. I guess I got it early,” Rogers tells PEOPLE.

She adds, “I was stage two, and it was a certain kind of chemo that they gave me, it was pills and the radiation, and it didn’t affect it so that was good,” confirming that she’s now “in remission.”

In terms of how the cancer diagnosis has changed her outlook on life, Rogers says she no longer sweats the small stuff.

“I don’t worry about the small things. It’s not worth it. I was rushing here, and I went, ‘Wait a minute. You’re not going anywhere,” the star says.

Rogers says it was her family and her priest who helped her get through such a tough time, recalling, “The day before I started my chemo and radiation, my priest, I told him, I said, ‘Can I talk to you about something?’ I said, ‘I’m starting chemo and radiation tomorrow.’ He said, ‘Come with me.’ And he took me into the church, up the aisle, up on the altar. He said, ‘Stand right here.’ And he went and got some oils and a prayer and did the anointing. So I felt that that’s what helped me through.”

The actress is now gradually getting her energy back amid her recovery. “It’s about 70% right now. I’m just basically letting things happen. I’m not making anything happen,” she tells PEOPLE.

Rogers’ comments come after she told TV Insider that she’d followed her intuition earlier this year, and made a doctor’s appointment, after feeling like something “wasn’t quite right” with her body.

After a series of tests, including a colonoscopy, MRI, PET scan and biopsy, Rogers was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer.

“[My doctor] said, ‘You have cancer and you have to start treatment,’” she recalled. “It was all a shock. I mean, I think I was in shock for several days because I take pretty good care of myself. But he said, ‘It’s a good thing you caught it in time.’”

Colon, or colorectal, cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, after lung and breast cancers.

The American Cancer Society recommends that adults aged 45 and up get regular colon cancer screenings, either stool analyses or colonoscopies. And they urge people with symptoms of colon cancer — such as a change in bowel movements, including increased diarrhea, rectal bleeding, dark stools, unexpected weight loss, cramping and excess fatigue — to get checked out by a doctor. They emphasize the need for preemptive screenings, as these symptoms typically only appear after colon cancer has already spread.

While speaking about her diagnosis with TV Insider in the interview published on Oct. 30, Rogers said she’d wrapped filming on Days of Our Lives on June 13, and started treatment three days later. 

“It was radiation every day and chemo every day for six weeks and it was tough,” she told the outlet. “It was tough knowing you had to do it five days a week and then you had off Saturday and Sunday. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekends because I didn’t have to go to and see a doctor. I was so tired of seeing doctors.”

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The soap’s summer schedule helped make her absence less noticeable, the publication noted.

Rogers, who completed treatment on July 31, shared, “I was able to keep it under wraps, and then the show took that break, so it wasn’t necessary to get into it all then. It helped me because it gave me even more time to chill and to get myself healthy.”