Sarah Beeny has opened up about her gruelling treatment for breast cancer in a new documentary coming to Channel 4.
The deeply personal one-off film, Sarah Beeny vs Cancer, sees the 51-year-old broadcaster and property expert explore the past, present and future of breast cancer treatment in the UK, while dealing with her own journey to recovery.
She welcomed cameras into her home for the programme just two weeks after three lumps were discovered in her left breast.
Speaking through tears at the start of the documentary, Beeny says: “I’m just not gonna die, you do know that. I’ve got a whole life. I need it. I’ve got four children. People need their mother. The truth is, I kind of needed my mother.”
Beeny’s mother died of breast cancer at 39, when Beeny was just 10. Beeny says in the film that she had been waiting her whole life to hear that she had cancer.
Her partner Graham Swift, an artist, says in the documentary that it was a huge deal for Beeny when she turned 40 as a healthy woman.
In the show, Beeny is seen at various stages of chemotherapy. Her sons are shown cutting her hair short, and later Beeny sits in her car after doing the school run, pulling out clumps of her remaining hair.
Cameras also follow Beeny as she gets a wig fitted by the NHS.
Swift, who calls Beeny a “force of nature”, says he has been up at night worrying throughout the treatment. “F***yeah, there are sleepless nights,” he says. “It’s really hard. It’s horrible.”
Beeny has now got the all-clear, and at the end of the documentary, she signs off with the words: “The chances of surviving breast cancer have doubled in the past 40 years, and that only gets better and better the more that is understood.
“So many people are so scared. It’s that fear that keeps a lot of people away from going and checking things out and getting treatment.
“So trust your body and go and get it checked out at a proper breast clinic.
“If you get the diagnosis that I got eight months ago, my message would be, just, don’t be afraid. Because amazing people are doing amazing things and the outlook is getting better every day.”
Sarah Beeny vs Cancer airs at 9pm on Channel 4 on Monday 12 June.
