Michael Strahan Says Daughter Isabella Taught Him ‘You Take Your Pain and Make it a Message’ (Exclusive)

Isabella Strahan has taught her famous dad a thing or two about perseverance.

Months after the 20-year-old finished treatment for medulloblastoma, a malignant tumor that arises in the cerebellum, and revealed she was cancer-free, her father, Michael Strahan, 52, opened up to PEOPLE at Town & Country’s 11th Annual Philanthropy Summit on Tuesday, Oct. 29, about what it was like watching her medical journey.

“It was inspiring, but tough because I’m watching her go through something and telling everybody about, and I’m seeing it in real time, and then to know that she’s sharing something that is so personal with everyone,” he says, referring to Isabella’s popular YouTube vlogs in which she documented each step of her treatment.

While the Good Morning America cohost admits he doesn’t know if he would be able to be as vulnerable as his daughter, he tells PEOPLE that it has shown him that if “you take your pain and you make it a message,” you “can help other people get through their pain through your message.”

“She’s just been a phenomenal young adult, and I couldn’t be more proud of her for doing that,” he says.

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Isabella announced her diagnosis during a segment on Good Morning America in January. She first learned about the condition in late October and underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai to remove the mass a day before her 19th birthday.

“To hear the words, cancer-free, it makes you extremely happy,” the former NFL star says. “It doesn’t make you less nervous. I’ll be honest with you. I still get nervous.”

“I’m still every day on pins and needles for now, but it made me happy because I saw that there was a sense of completion in her mind of that part of her journey, and that was important that she had the hope to know that, okay, let’s try to pick up my life and take my life work and go from here,” he adds.

The television host tells PEOPLE that his daughter, who is a student at the University of Southern California, is back in school “loving college, loving being around her friends, loving going to class.”

“I think it’s given her such a different appreciation of life, especially as a young adult,” he says.

At Tuesday’s event, Michael also admitted that it’s hard for him to look back at his daughter’s journey on her vlogs, telling the audience, “To go back and see it again, I think it would just crush me even more.”

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While reflecting on her journey in a cover story for Town & Country, Isabella shared that she “feels like I’ve grown in many ways.”