Sarah Harding

[myusernamewastakenbyme]

Just read online the awful news that she has advanced breast cancer....poor girl...shes only 38 years old.

Yes, I think the fact she wrote 'the devastating news' about it spreading suggests she means Stage 4. Being diagnosed with breast cancer is tough, but I think there is a world of difference between a primary and secondary diagnosis (where it has spread to other parts of the body/stage 4/metastasised), the latter being incurable.

It's what anyone who has been diagnosed with primary cancer lives in fear of.

Very sad news 😭 I hope SH can pull through

My cousin is now 12 years cancer free and I would not wish what she went though on anyone. I hope Sarah Harding's treatment is successful.

Agree with PP who said please can we not describe this as a battle? I had breast cancer in my 30s and found these terms unhelpful. You are either lucky, or you aren’t. Unfortunately as it has spread she is unlucky, and I feel for her so much, just awful.

I also wanted to post, for anyone in their 30s reading this who has breast cancer, that I am now many years on and fine and my cancer was aggressive. I know reading about celebs with bad prognosis like this really knocked me when I was having treatment and in the years after and so I wanted to offer my experience as well here in case jt helps someone.

Poor lass. I wish her well.

Agree with PP who said please can we not describe this as a battle?

She did say "I am fighting as hard as I possibly can" though.

Maybe she meant "I am fighting as hard as I possibly can" in the sense of fighting to stay positive, not literally somehow trying to mind over matter her body into beating the cancer.

I have cancer and I do take offence if i ever see someone (usually who has not had cancer themselves) implying that if you fight hard enough you will get your body to beat it. I firmly believe it does not work that way.

And I have definitely failed (often) to stay mentally positive during my cancer experience much as I would have liked to....

Yes I know, I’m sure I said stuff like that too. It was only later that it dawned on me it wasn’t something to fight, all you can do is take the treatment and hope for the best. What you do or don’t do above that makes not one iota of difference.

Nor, in your 30s , has anything you’ve done before made any difference as it’s not linked to lifestyle at that age .

I am currently a breast cancer patient although my situation is far better than Sarah Harding's. I was upset to read this news today, such a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. I have also been quite upset to read the recent various celebrity diagnosis of BC and try and avoid reading too much. I have just bought Jennifer Saunders book that documents her experiences with BC as she had exactly the same diagnosis as me. She is long past treatment and that gives me hope for my own future. I can't imagine how frightened Sarah Harding must be currently and I am so very sad for her. I do know, however, that even with mets, treatments are so very advanced now that people can live with them for a very long time...I've met a few during the course of my own treatment. I do hope this turns out to be the case for her.

@Bubblebu . You don’t have to stay positive, that makes no difference either and it’s ok to just think it’s shit. One foot in front of the other.

@TheFormidableMrsC your previous long running threads have helped me such a lot through a very dark time in my life and I’m sorry to hear you are having to face this as well. I used to hold on to Kylie! Also Sheila Hancock was inspirational xx

I meant was inspirational to me at the time of my illness - she is still inspirational in general!

@tootyfruitypickle Oh bless you! I am glad that my endless moaning brought some good! That situation is unfortunately ongoing, and I am absolutely sure that the continuous stress has contributed towards the situation I find myself in now. I too am sorry you've had to go through this. If you need an ear in any darkness, please do get in touch.

Yes I forgot about Sheila Hancock and agree about Kylie. I am now of "that age" at nearly 51 but having such a small child does make me fearful for the future. So far, my cancer was contained when it was discovered, no spread and I had surgery within a couple of days. Have had four cycles of chemo/Herceptin and now just Herceptin until next May (ish!). I hope that, like you, this will be a distant memory one day. Sorry for the derail!

@TheFormidableMrsC

I am currently a breast cancer patient although my situation is far better than Sarah Harding's. I was upset to read this news today, such a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. I have also been quite upset to read the recent various celebrity diagnosis of BC and try and avoid reading too much. I have just bought Jennifer Saunders book that documents her experiences with BC as she had exactly the same diagnosis as me. She is long past treatment and that gives me hope for my own future. I can't imagine how frightened Sarah Harding must be currently and I am so very sad for her. I do know, however, that even with mets, treatments are so very advanced now that people can live with them for a very long time...I've met a few during the course of my own treatment. I do hope this turns out to be the case for her.

I was a long time lurker and silent cheer on your other threads and I am so very sorry to hear you’ve had this diagnosis. It seems very unfair.

I wish you all the luck and healing you need

I had chemo/herceptin too xx

Terribly sad, she's no age at all. I hope she has lots of support from family and friends.

tootyfruitypickl thank you for your post.

I had a zolodex injection today and have just felt so rough with nausea vomiting and diarreha all day in bed.

cancer (and its treatment) is just savage

@igot20joe 'advanced' breast cancer means it has spread to other organs beyond lymph nodes, usually defined as stage 4, a precarious position to be in, but not necessarily a death sentence each and every time. She is young, she can respond well to treatment, who knows.Stage 4 is not necessarily a terminal diagnosis, depends on the type of breast cancer and many different patient factors.

I feel desperately sad for her, because I know what she's going through. I was diagnosed at Stage 4 too, and while it's true that while it's incurable and can be treated for a relatively long time, once you've got metastases to your vital organs, you are running out of options. The average survival for Stage 4 breast cancer is around two years.

It is a hard, hard situation to be in.

Actually, the younger the patient is, the more aggressive the breast cancer tends to be, sadly. It certainly sounds from this as if it is stage 4. Stage 3 would be diagnosed from the outset through a lymph node biopsy whereas this clearly suggests that she was diagnosed, treated and a distant spread detected after initial treatment. It depends on where the cancer has spread. A spread to the bones is a much better scenario than spread to liver, lungs or brains as the cancer can potentially be controlled for some time. Spread to organs carries a pretty short life expectancy though and it’s not helping Sarah or anyone else to imply that she can ‘beat this’. As a pp also said, I had a friend who had stage 4 and she found it so hard to deal with others breezily telling her she would kick it. She used to refer to it as terminal cancer when telling people, yet they still told her she’d get better.

Oh and for those apparently desperate to excuse the person who saw her in hospital, as she is London based, chances are she probably is being treated at the Marsden given their expertise. I would also imagine that her appearance has changed through her treatment making it unlikely that the person thought she was just a visitor (and why would visiting someone in hospital be something worth mentioning online anyway?). People are low-lifes and it’s sad that she has been pushed to reveal this. I hope the press stays the hell away and leaves her alone.

This is so sad. Worse still that she felt compelled to go public before someone outed her!

@Loseastonein21years, you are right about the age, and how frustrating it is to be told that "you can beat this", "just fight it", "stay positive no matter what".

I'm a pretty easygoing person, and I don't waste energy on being angry with well-intentioned people who just don't get it.

It must be a hundred times worse though for Sarah Harding, having hundreds of tabloid/website/Twitter commentators saying much the same stuff. She hasn't got time for that shit.

@Devlesko

lotusbell

Yes, really. I know she was in a group in the 90"s, I don't know which.
I hadn't heard she'd been in hospital and if she hadn't announced it, there would be no thread

I wish her well, but all this forced into it crap, she was within her rights to/ could easily have kept it quiet if she wanted to, just like many other slebs do.
I'm not suggesting she should have done btw, it's her decision to do as she feels fit.
I hope treatment is good for her and she pulls through.

Or more likely if she hadn't announced it, it would have been on the front page of The Sun and then there would have been a thread about it.

This really gets my goat. It's naive in the extreme to think it's easy for people in the public eye to keep their personal issues quiet "if they want to".