There is a crippling feeling that sets in when I hear of a celebrity or anyone famous announcing they have cancer. I quickly search to see what specifically they have. When it’s breast cancer, all of the usual questions spring to my mind. What kind? What stage and grade? Hormone and HER2 status? This is my new normal. I want to read all I can about their initial diagnosis or if it is a recurrence. I travel deep into that rabbit hole looking for something. Something that gives me a glimmer of hope. Something that says it won’t be my fate again. And that is awful. I am petrified as I do it and feel like shit the entire time. It is not some fleeting moment of fear, it is literally hours of not being able to leave the internet. Life just stops dead in its tracks.
There’s quite a list of famous women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and have announced it. There’s quite a list of famous women who have gone through surgeries and chemotherapy and radiation and went on to continue their careers, as though nothing happened. They’ve moved on. Great. I wish they could do a pink sister a favor and tell what exactly they had and how they got through it and what treatments they had. There’s a missed opportunity to use their position to really educate, help and motivate the rest of us. The announcement is made but then that is it. I need more.
One famous lady, who I absolutely adore, has been very frank and open about her cancer. She put everything out there and has been my hero and role model through my own cancer journey. She inspired me to not hide myself and to be real. When she went into remission, I breathed a sigh of relief for her. When she was back on television, I thought she was the most beautiful soul ever. She is. When she made the announcement recently that her cancer was back and she is now Stage 4, I cried. I literally cried. My heart hurt. I wanted her to stay in remission. I needed her to stay in remission. There’s a tribe of us who do.
There’s a smaller list of famous women who have encountered breast cancer once and moved on from it only to have it return. That hurts to even write. Those questions about the initial diagnosis and treatments come back.
When Shannen Doherty’s breast cancer came back and she made that announcement, back down the rabbit hole I went. I lost two days. It put me into a horrific funk. I was deeply sad and absolutely scared shitless. If it can happen to someone who can have the best medical teams, it can happen to any one of us pink sisters. I spent hours reading and researching. Again, it wasn’t hard as she gave the world her story from the beginning and by doing so, she gave me hope. By reading about her and everything she has put out there, I was reminded again that no two stories are the same in cancer. We are all so very unique with our diagnosis, stages and grades as well as protocols.
She has done something no other woman in Hollywood has been brave enough or bad ass enough to do. She told us everything, the good, the bad and the ugly…and she did it beautifully. She was real about it.
“I think the thing I want to do the most right now is I want to make an impact.” She said. “I want to be remembered for something bigger than just me.” She has already done so.
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