Brave Beeny’s very personal message of hope to Kate
HAVING survived a brave battle with cancer herself, Sarah Beeny has a message of hope for the Princess of Wales.
‘I feel really sorry for Kate, but treatment now is so much better than it used to be,’ the Property Ladder presenter tells me.
‘A lot of our fears are based on having lost someone we love ten or 20 years ago, but medicine has moved on so much since — it’s a completely different picture.’
Catherine, 42, revealed in a moving video message in March that she was in the early stages of treatment after a cancer diagnosis. She said it was a ‘huge shock’ after an ‘incredibly tough couple of months’. Details of the cancer have not been disclosed.
Sarah, 52, who shares the same birthday as Catherine, January 9, revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in 2022 and, after gruelling chemotherapy treatment and a double mastectomy, was given the all-clear by doctors last April. She memorably posed for the cover of the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine with a shaved head, saying cancer patients were often ‘ashamed’ to go bald.
She tells me that deciding to ‘walk around with a bald head made it easier’. Speaking at a London event for Dettol’s GermWare range of copper antibacterial items, she says: ‘Losing your hair as a woman, if you look back through history, is often a punishment, so it feels disempowering.’
The presenter, who left London for Somerset in 2019 with her husband, artist Graham Swift, and their sons, praises Catherine for speaking out.
‘I’m really impressed because she will raise a huge amount of awareness for people who maybe are a bit worried but won’t go to the doctor.’
She adds: ‘The future is really bright; it’s not something to be remotely scared of later on. Early diagnosis is the key.’