Sarah Beeny

My mother died when I was 10 years old. She was only 39 & it was 6 years after she had been diagnosed with breast cancer that had then metastasised to her brain.

So, when I was 50 and diagnosed with breast cancer my mind leapt back 40 years and I had suddenly filled the shoes that my mother had left.

Except I didn’t.

I was so lucky because treatment has moved on in those 40 years and what was terminal for my mother was not necessarily so for me. I now had an array of treatments available to me that were far less radical and far more effective than she could have ever dreamed of.

Being in the public eye gave me another choice to make. I was going to lose my hair. However good a wig would be it would be hard to sweep that one under the carpet and entirely impossible for my 4 sons and husband and massive extended family to not know. I didn’t want any of those people that I love to have to ‘keep a secret’ and apart from anything else I decided it was far more complicated to not talk about it than to talk about it. So, I put it out there. Well actually my agent did - she suggested it was better to tell the truth myself - so I did.

The utterly lovely thousands of messages and letters of support was overwhelming & for which I will always be grateful.

I was then asked by Channel 4 if I would make a documentary about my situation. I agreed because I figured it might help just one person in the same position as me, or knowing someone in my position from feeling quite so scared.

One documentary later I had discovered that, as my son pointed out to me, “we know way more people that have had cancer at some point in the past and are now fine than people who have died of it”.

Clearly there are still utterly tragic stories but every day treatment and outcomes continue to improve.

Now I’m 53 and luckily for me, it feels like a lifetime ago. I still wear the scars but I am so so grateful to all those wonderful people involved in the research & treatment of breast cancer.