Wendy Richards - terminal cancer

[georgiemum]

What a shame. She always came across as quite nice and normal for a tv personality. I always remember her as the glamorous one on 'Are you Being Served?'.

[MaryAnnSingleton]

news

[WendyWeber]

"The actress is a life-long smoker but says the cancer was caused by a hormone imbalance."

Can't have helped though, can it?

[PavlovtheDog]

Wendy - does it matter how she got it? Not like she can undo it now.

[foxinsocks]

tis awful when it comes back aggressively...neighbour had breast cancer for decades. Then it suddenly came back like Wendy's has done and the poor woman died very quickly (matter of weeks).

What a dreadful dreadful disease.

[HRHSaintMamazon]

I agree that the cause is not important in her case.

but her smoking shouldn't be ignored..maybe it will help to show the realities to 14 year olds with their 10 pack of B&H.

It is such awful news.

[WendyWeber]

No, pavlov, of course she can't undo it but she could use the opportunity to say to other smokers that it's not such a good idea.

[PavlovtheDog]

HRH - Problem of Immediate Temptation - means that 14 years olds do not give a toss what will happen to them when they are in their 50's 60's, or to be honest, even in their 30's. They know smoking can cause cancer, they just do not care, as it is not as important as what they are doing right this second.

And I expect that was no different for Wendy Richards as she grew up.

She is now paying the ultimate price, if her smoking had anything to do with it at all, and she needs support, understanding and less moral judgment, bearing in mind this illness will kill her, not just make her a bit poorly.

[PavlovtheDog]

Why? Why should she have to say anything to anyone about what they do with her life? She is going to DIE!!! She should not have to do anything, dying says it all surely?

.

FWIW I wish Wendy and her family, strength, courage and positive thoughts through the difficult times ahead.

[PussinJimmyChoos]

She's prob feeling bad enough as it is tbh..

Besides, my MIL is Muslim - never drank in her life -she how has terminal liver cancer...you just never know what the Big Man has in store for you

[binkythebullet]

We don't know that her smoking was causal to her cancer, therefore it shouldn't be assumed that it was. If only epidemiology were that simple!!

Anyway, I suspect that there are very few of us that live such a 'pure' lifetsyle that we couldn't attribute something that we had done in our past to a future disease.

Agree with pavlov, now's the time to be supportive.

[onlyjoking9329]

how very sad, with regard to the smoking, my DH never smoked, he still died from cancer.

[HRHSaintMamazon]

oh no, i wasn't judging her at all. she made her choices to smoke a long time before the links between cancer and smoking came to light i imagine.

All; i meant was that if someone who is so well loved admits smoking and that it may or may not have had some link to the cancer it may help those little warnings on the side of their fag packs a little more real.

[WendyWeber]

Of course it's awful that this has happened to her, & I hope maybe the prognosis isn't as bad as it sounds; I just wish the smoking thing hadn't been mentioned at all

[Blandmum]

My dh never smoked, was teetotal, and cycled to work and back evey day, wasn't overweiught.

He had pancreatic cancer and died

Sometimes shit things happen

[Sycamoretree]

Ditto my dad. He never drank apart from the occasional ale. He cycled fanatically all is life (was up a mountain in South America on a mountain bike 12 months before he died). He also never smoked. Cancer has so many causes, many genetic, and much triggered by hormones. To be honest, though I know it wasn't meant offensively, to say the smoking "couldn't have helped" is a bit glib. Who knows - it's quite possible it had absolutely nothing to do with her getting cancer at all.

[PavlovtheWitchesCat]

If we are going to add to this then...

My mother died aged 66 last year. She smoked ALL her life. She died of ovarian cancer which is not in any way related to smoking, passive or otherwise. It is a cancer of mostly post-menopausal women, can be hereditary.

She smoked. But if she did not, she would have died from ovarian cancer regardless.

[policywonk]

My mother died of lung cancer. She had smoked for nearly 40 years, and it killed her. What's the argument?

[Fadge]

She was diagnosed in January with this agreesive form of cancer, I am surprised she is still here truly I am. A neighbour of mine has dx with breast cancer 6 months ago which then spread to liver and spine, she died a week ago, it's very very fast moving.

I doubt Wendy Richards has an awful lot of time left, if my neighbour is anything to go by, she's probably on borrowed time already. I hope she gets to marry her lover in time.

[Heifer]

Shit certainly does happen.

My dad walked or cycled to work all his life, no smoking, no drinking (apart from homemade wine)

He got early dementia at 65 and died by 72.

My mum eat healthily all her life, had organic food before it became trendy, had brown bread. rice etc. again no smoking or drinking. She had bowel cancer at 72 and was dead within 12 months...

Someone had the nerve to say to me the day of her funeral, "that brown bread and organic food didn't do her any good did it!".....

[onlyjoking9329]

did you punch them?

[georgiemum]

Who the hell said that? I would have decked them. Even our no-one in our family wouldn't have come out with something like that (and we have a very black sense of humour).

[expatinscotland]

Geesuz, hope none of you ever gets a cancer that could be related to your lifestyle, including obesity/overweight.

Then we can all speculate about what a great example you are to young people to stay off the chips and pizzas.

[expatinscotland]

and no, i don't smoke.