Girls Aloud stars are reuniting in memory of beloved bandmate Sarah Harding. Sarah died in September 2021 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her fellow bandmates Nicola Roberts, Kimberly Walsh, Nadine Coyle and Cheryl Tweedy, are reuniting on Sunday, 24 July in her honour, reports The Daily Mirror.
The girls have teamed up with Cancer Research to host an extra special charity event, Race for Life for Sarah. Following Sarah's passing, her mum Marie announced the heart breaking news on Instagram and said: "It’s with deep heartbreak that today I’m sharing the news that my beautiful daughter Sarah has sadly passed away.
"Many of you will know of Sarah’s battle with cancer and that she fought so strongly from her diagnosis until her last day." As her bandmates reunite in her memory, here are the first signs Sarah spotted of her breast cancer, and the other symptoms that are important to look out for.
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Sarah initially shared the news in August 2020 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and at the time opened up about the early symptoms she dismissed. She also wrote candidly about her experience with breast cancer in her book, Hear Me Out.
The Girls Aloud singer revealed that she had felt pain around her breast but told herself it was just a cyst because she was in "denial." She wrote: "At first I thought it was just a cyst.
"I’d been playing my guitar a lot, and I thought the strap had probably irritated an area around my breast. The trouble was, the pain was getting worse.
"It got so bad that I couldn’t sleep in a bed anymore. I slept on the sofa, popping painkillers like they were Smarties."
She added: "I really overdid it, but the pain was overwhelming. Eventually, my skin started to bruise, and by now I was terrified."
Sarah says that one day she then "woke up realising that I'd been in denial. Yes, there was a lockdown, yes, there was a pandemic, but it was almost as if I’d been using that as an excuse not to face up to the fact that something was very wrong.
"All through the tests, I was, of course, praying that it wasn’t cancer. I think the fact that what I had was so painful gave me some hope it might not be.
"I’d read that cancer lumps are often not painful, which is why I was hoping against hope that what I had was just a cyst of some kind." The first symptom of breast cancer that most women notice is a lump like Sarah did, or an area of thickened tissue in their breast.
Whilst not all lumps are cancerous, it is important that they are checked by a doctor. It is important to remember that men can also get breast cancer, and so should also check themselves regularly.
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