Angela Raiola, part of the VH1 series “Mob Wives” and its spinoffs, said in a tearful interview airing Tuesday on “The Dr. Oz Show” that her family is her support and her reason to keep going.
“I look at my kids and my grandchildren and I know how much they need me,” Raiola told Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of the syndicated TV series.
The mother of two and grandmother of six has undergone several surgeries since she was diagnosed last year with throat and lung cancer.
She said she was twice declared cancer-free, only to see it return and spread. Radiation and chemotherapy have failed to check it, and her doctors are switching to what Oz called an advanced approach aimed at boosting her body’s immune system.
Raiola told Oz she can’t help feeling depressed at times.
“Sometimes I feel I’m gonna be fine, and sometimes I just don’t think I am,” said Raiola, who lives with her daughter, son-in-law and their three children on New York’s Staten Island.
Her hair, once long and dark, is now pale and close-shaven, cut in anticipation of losing it to chemo.
Raiola is the niece of the late Salvatore “Sally Dogs” Lombardi, who was a reputed captain of the Genovese crime family. After gaining celebrity on “Mob Wives,” Raiola got her own spinoff series, “Big Ang” and “Miami Monkey.”
A cigarette smoker for 40 years, she said she stopped immediately after her first cancer diagnosis last March. Her doctors told her the disease was “positively” caused by smoking, she said, and she called for people to quit the habit or resist picking it up.
Her sister and brother-in-law are part of her support team, said Raiola, but her husband, Neil Murphy, is not part of her life. source: abcnews.com
Big Ang will be missed, she was the show of Mob wives. I loved her approach to life and what life had brought her. The love she had for her children and grandchildren along with her family was widely noticed . It is so sad that she had so much to offer, and she was taken way too soon. The show just will not be Mob Wives without her. Sad that she had to know her husband was not one of her anchors she needed the most in such a difficult time. But she knew she had the love from her other family. It seems that some are taken way before we want them to be, but for every life taken a remembrance of them shall for ever be in the hearts of her loved ones. No more pain no more sickness and no more fears, she’s at peace and she’ll forever live in the hearts and eyes of her children . RIP Big Ang ! You fought like a champ and you’ll be remembered as one too
I am lost 4 words.my favorite mob wife is gone.2 b honest im ty and tears are rolling down my face thinking about my good good girl friend who ive beening partying with 4 years now has stage 3 cancer..she was cancer free up until last year.i am so scared right now,she remind me so much of big ang being strong 4 everybody.always thinking of everybody feeling but her own! And the thing is she never smoked or drank every. It pisses me off cause shit happens 2 the good ones.im sitting here watching repeats of mob wives now.big ang kept saying she didnt want 2 do any more surgeries because she was worried that her body cnt take another surgery, she said it 5 or 10 nooo im not going under the knife again.ill rather die was big ang words.dammmmmm:c u will be missed,my prayers goes out 2 her in tirer family.much respect