Shannon Doherty says she became a different person after being diagnosed with cancer.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 star, 52, opened up on Brian Austin Green, Sharna Burgess and Randy Spelling’s podcast Elderly about how her cancer diagnosis changed her way of thinking about life.
“I think cancer is one of the absolute best and one of the worst things that has happened to me in my entire life,” Doherty said. “It changed me as a human being.”
“It made me grow up in a completely different way,” she explained. “It made me look at life and relationships very differently. My values have changed. My priorities have changed. I feel much clearer and more focused.”
Shannen Doherty is focused on how cancer treatment can help her ‘squeeze another 3 to 5 years’ out of her life
She added that she believes she now has a different “strength” when it comes to overcoming obstacles – unlike her “quieter strength” before.
Since I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, many things have changed in the Enchanted actress’s life. She filed for divorce from Kurt Iswarienko, her husband of 11 years, last year, and in recent years has focused her energies on advocating for cancer research and medical advancement.
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Shannen Doherty.
Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty
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Despite all these positive changes, Doherty, who revealed to PEOPLE in November that the cancer had spread to her bones, said she still has to deal with the constant fear that her body will fail her.
“I woke up today and my back hurt and I easily passed out for 15 to 20 minutes,” she recalled. “Because I thought this is what happens when the protocol stops working… the cancer starts spreading and you feel it and it starts eating away at your bones and it hurts.”
“I had a moment where I was very, very, very scared,” she continued. “So in that sense it’s the worst.”
Shannen Doherty wants to ’embrace life’ as cancer spreads to her bones: ‘My greatest memory is yet to come’ (Exclusive)
She said she eventually calmed down by reminding herself that she had “already woken up with these pains” because she was “old” and that her previous check-ups had been “perfectly fine”.
Doherty also stated that she has adopted a more positive outlook on her cancer diagnosis and plans to live as long as possible.
“There is no cure,” she said on the podcast. “But there are so many super cool things happening in the medical field, especially with cancer, that I never look at it as terminal.”
She continued, “I look at it as something that I just have to stay on the protocol for as long as possible until there’s a cure or there’s a new drug that will give me another three years… and then another five years, whatever it is. ”
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Source: HIS Education