Hundreds of people gathered in Hyde Park on Sunday morning to take part in Race For Life For Sarah, a Cancer Research 5k run in memory of Girls Aloud member Sarah Harding.
Harding died at the age of 39 in September, a year after revealing she had breast cancer.
Her bandmates Nicola Roberts, Cheryl and Nadine Coyle were at the event wearing pink T-shirts with Race For Life wording.
A huge crowd dressed in pink – many with pink died hair, wigs, and even pink tutus – took part in London, with other runners across the country pledging to join in remotely to help raise funds. Cheryl has said she still cannot quite believe the death of bandmate Sarah Harding is real.
Ahead of Cancer Research’s Run For Life For Sarah in Hyde Park on Sunday, the singer said: “It doesn’t feel like she’s gone at all.”
Cheryl said: “To be honest, I’ve never experienced or anticipated this grief.
“You know, I’ve lost grandparents when I was younger and I lost a friend when I was younger but nothing like this, the feeling of shock and disbelief and it still lingers now to be honest. I still can’t quite believe it’s real.”
When asked if a Girls Aloud reunion without Harding could be a possibility, Cheryl: “It hasn’t even been a year. It doesn’t feel like she’s gone at all.” Cheryl said it was great the surviving Girls Aloud members Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh could be involved in Race For Life For Sarah in memory of Sarah Harding.
She said: “You feel so helpless, you’ve never felt hopelessness like it, it’s horrendous.
“So the fact that she had one request that we can fulfil is like great for us because it just feels like we’re doing something.
“We felt like there was nothing we could do for so long.” Nadine Coyle said she was “in denial” about bandmate Sarah Harding’s illness.
Speaking ahead of Race For Life For Sarah, Coyle said: “This time last year we were actually hanging out.
“We all met up last year. She was there and we were talking and she didn’t even seem that sick.
“I was in denial the entire time and was the friend that was ‘Oh, it’s gonna be all right’, you know, I was completely in denial right up until the day she passed.”
Her remark prompted Nicola Roberts to say to her: “Also we were concerned for your denial.
She added: “Like I think for me, I felt like I’m worried for you that you’re not so present.” Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh joined Race For Life For Sarah remotely as she was not able to make it to the event in London.
When Cheryl, Roberts and Coyle took to the stage in front of attendees in Hyde Park, Roberts said she could not reach Walsh at that moment and suggested she might be “warming up” for her own race. Nicole Roberts spoke of Sarah Harding’s “electric” energy ahead of Race For Life For Sarah.
She said: “Obviously coming together now quite often to get things happening is strange because her energy was so electric that we’re kind of… the four of us have such a chill…
“Sarah’s energy was like a firework so I feel like that huge difference in energy when she’s not there.
“I think that for us right now, we don’t feel like Girls Aloud. We don’t feel like a band without Sarah. She, like I said just now, she was such a huge part of our energy that it doesn’t feel like that.”
