Why Clea Shearer Is Grateful to Put Her Hair Up — and What Her Kids Learned From Her Breast Cancer (Exclusive)

Clea Shearer recently marked a milestone: her hair was finally long enough to be up and pinned.

“Not only was it liberating to get it off my face, but for me it meant that for the first time I could look in the mirror and not see a cancer patient, not see someone who was the result of chemotherapy,” the Home Edit star tells PEOPLE. “It was a huge rush of relief that I never expected.”

After being diagnosed with stage 1 invasive breast cancer, an aggressive form of breast cancer, in March 2022, Shearer, 42, underwent months of chemotherapy and radiation and six surgeries, including a double mastectomy and a recent procedure over the summer to remove her ovaries.

Clea Shearer in a hospital in Nashville, November 2023.

Clea Shearer

Home Edit’s Clea Shearer reveals she has breast cancer: ‘If anyone can beat cancer, it’s me’

Since finishing chemotherapy in September 2022, she has embraced every victory. “I celebrate every milestone I have,” she says.

And that includes something as seemingly small as a haircut: “I wasn’t necessarily looking for that milestone, but when I reached it, I was like, ‘Wow, I think I could walk around without people questioning or questioning my hair,’ which is amazing.” .”

Another unexpected revelation from her cancer journey: her own strength. “I thought I was a delicate flower,” says Shearer. “But this process has taught me that I am much stronger than I ever thought possible.”

Clea Shearer with her son Sutton, daughter Stella and husband John in 2024.

Clea Shearer/Instagram

The mother-of-two – she shares Stella, 13, and Sutton, 10, with photographer husband John Shearer – says her children have seen that side of her too.

“When I was undergoing chemotherapy, we were in a restaurant and my son drew on the child’s menu and handed it to me,” she recalls. “It was a picture of a lion and it said: ‘You are braver than a lion.’ I’ve got it framed.” Stella, meanwhile, is currently working on a speech for her eighth-grade class about the day her mom shaved her head for cancer treatment.

Her children are “part of the reason why you keep fighting like hell. I want them to see that I’m brave and strong and that I’m a fighter.”

Drawing of Clea Shearer’s son.

Clea Shearer/Instagram

It means “staying hyper-alert,” she says. Although her breast cancer was at an early stage, she is hormone receptor positive and HER2 negative, which means, she says, “I have a very high risk of recurrence.”

Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer, new hosts of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on set in August.

Clea Shearer

The Home Edit’s Clea Shearer celebrates being cancer free: ‘I haven’t stopped crying’

Part of that effort is her new partnership with drugmaker Eli Lilly and Company to share her experience with a drug she started taking in January 2023 called Verzenio, “When you have breast cancer that’s at high risk of coming back, you wake up every a day with a little fear, cancer follows you like a shadow,” she says. “So anything I can do to get into it is really amazing. It feels like I have a little bit more of a safety net.”

After two years with no sign of the cancer returning, “I’m so hopeful,” she says.

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Source: HIS Education