(Twitter: @shelleyespn)

Last October, ESPN reporter Shelley Smith announced on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. After going through radiation treatments and battling the disease for six months, Smith is “basically cancer-free” and ready to get back to work.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Smith says she’ll be on air on April 30.

And she will be bald.

“I have a friend who is a former oncology nurse who tells me that when your hair falls out, it means the chemo is working,” Smith told SI. “That’s the attitude I took into this. I miss my hair, but I took what she said to heart: My bald head means I have a fight and I look at it as being fortunate to have a battle.”

Smith’s final radiation treatment was last week. Next Thursday, she’ll be in Hawaii with Marcus Mariota for ESPN’s NFL draft coverage. Per SI, Smith will undergo “five more rounds of radiation” beginning May 11, but is “basically cancer-free.”

“Stuart Scott would have loved my fight,” she said. “So I’ve never once dreaded going into chemo or cutting my hair or walking around bald. Yeah, people stare. But I want them to know that I am fighting. If they stare too long, I’ll just tell them: Yeah, I have breast cancer. Ask questions. What do you want to know?”

Smith will get regular checkups and MRIs after completing radiation, and said doctors believe she has a chance at living a long and healthy life.

She’s said she’s received an incredible amount of support from her ESPN colleagues throughout these last six months. For example, college basketball reporter Andy Katz wrote Smith’s name on his bib and arm during Monday’s Boston Marathon.

“The whole company has been amazing,” Smith said. “I mean [president John] Skipper called me. They really know what to do when you have trouble. Everybody has called. They’ve been unbelievably supportive and I am so lucky because there are a lot of women who don’t work for that kind of company.

“A lot of women don’t want mammograms, they don’t want to know they have breast cancer because they can’t take time off or they don’t have insurance or can’t afford treatment. That’s why I fight: to try to raise awareness.”