Cancer patient Shannen Doherty
“I will keep fighting to stay alive”
© Neilson Barnard / Getty Images
Shannen Doherty doesn’t give up. Despite her fourth stage cancer, the actress continues to work and fights for a different way of dealing with the disease.
Shannen Doherty, 50, is a fighter. Despite having stage four breast cancer, the actress continues to work on the film set. She was diagnosed with cancer for the first time in February 2015. After numerous treatments, she was initially able to give the all-clear – but the disease returned in February 2020. But giving up was never an option for the “Beverly Hills 90210” star. On the contrary: Shannen Doherty talks about how cancer made her even stronger.
Shannen Doherty is busy “living the life”
Since announcing her diagnosis last year, Shannen Doherty has campaigned to dispel misconceptions about cancer. She doesn’t want people to think of a person “who is gray and falls over, can no longer move, goes to the hospice and no longer works.” Even patients in the fourth stage of the disease are “very much active and lively.”
She spoke to ABC News about her life with the disease and what is now the focus of her life. The 50-year-old shared that she is about to “live life” and “spend her days with friends, family and work.” Most of all, being diagnosed with cancer has made her focus on her career.
“Work has become even more fulfilling”
Shannen Doherty wants to break the prejudice that people with stage four cancer are unable to work like others. For herself, the work as an actress has become even more important and fulfilling after the diagnosis. Among other things, her new film “List of a Lifetime” will be shown on US television on October 10th. The film comes from an awareness campaign for breast cancer. She wants to show that people with cancer can also work. “Many people with stage 4 cancer are written off,” criticizes the TV star, because it is often assumed that they are no longer fully efficient. Shannen hopes that sick people will be given the chance to prove otherwise.
“Beverly Hills 90210” star faces cancer
The diagnosis is a “bitter pill to swallow”, but Shannen continues to fight and face cancer. “You can find all the things that you had hidden,” she told ABC. “And there are beautiful things that you find: you find vulnerability, you find your trust in people again. You find forgiveness,” said the 50-year-old.
When asked why she refuses to keep a bucket list, the Charmed actress said that goals are far more important to her. “A bucket list almost feels like these are things you have to check off before you die, and I never want to act like that,” she said. “I just want to act so that I don’t have to tick things off because I’ll keep fighting to stay alive,” said Doherty. She has accepted cancer as “part of her life” and is fighting to live with this incurable disease for a long time.
Source used: people.com