Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards recalls ‘rough’ breast cancer battle and reveals she still experiences side effects a decade on
Loose Women panellist Brenda Edwards told how ‘tough’ the battle with breast cancer has been and said she still suffers from side effects.
The former X Factor star, 55, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She was just 46 and playing Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray The Musical at the time.
She said she had “no idea at all” when the doctor diagnosed her and had to admit her so she would remember what she had said.
Brenda, who is now cancer-free, said it was traumatic having to tell her family and friends the terrifying news but she had to “be strong”.
She told The sun: ‘When I was told I had cancer, I was at a loss. When I went to the oncologist, I took a phone with me and recorded everything. I’m so glad I did, because I had so many questions later.
Loose Women panellist Brenda Edwards has told how ‘tough’ it was battling breast cancer and revealed she still suffers from side effects.
The former X Factor star, 55, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She was just 46 and playing Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray The Musical at the time.
“I had to be strong, that was my mission. Yes, there were always days when I was bad. Every day I woke up and thought, ‘Well, the cancer is still there.’
“It was really hard when I told my family and friends when I got the diagnosis. But it’s hard, and it’s hard for different people who are affected by it, and I’m still affected by it.”
The star, who was in her mid-40s when she was diagnosed, added that one of the side effects was that she went into early menopause, which is still having effects now.
In 2021, Brenda revealed that she once found herself in tears on stage during a performance of Hairspray after being told she had stage 3 breast cancer.
She recounted the heartbreaking moment when all her castmates started crying while singing “I Know Where I’ve Been.”
Brenda was a guest on Martin and Roman’s Weekend Best and explained why that particular song is so ‘poignant’ to her.
“When I went on the show in 2016, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. I went on the show and sang that song,” she said.
“It was like, ‘We’ve come a long way and we’ve lost so many people along the way.’ When those words came out, the whole cast started crying.
‘Tracy Turnblade held my hands with tears in her eyes and I was like, “Baby, I can’t sing and cry, you’ve got to stop this, please, stop this.”
She has now told how she was left ‘completely blank’ when the doctor diagnosed her and had to admit her so she would remember what she had said.
In 2021, Brenda revealed that she once collapsed on stage during a production of Hairspray after being told she had stage three breast cancer
“The key change, there was no singing at all, because I just had tears in my eyes. The first four rows they were in tears and I’m sure they thought, ‘Wow, this is really good acting,’ because nobody knew, I didn’t say anything about it.”
The audience, unaware of her diagnosis at the time, gave her a standing ovation.
Earlier this week, Brenda exclusively told MailOnline how she and her fellow Loose Women panellists are leaning on each other after many of them were struck by cancer.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, Coleen Nolan recently revealed that she checks herself every day for signs of the disease, due to the tragic impact it has had on her family.
She told MailOnline: ‘There are so many people who have had an influence on the Loose Women panel, including Carol McGiffin, myself and Coleen at the moment,’
Former panelist Carol McGiffin, 64, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and underwent a mastectomy that year.
Brenda said, “It’s really important to keep talking, no matter how small you think something is. Talk to your doctor about it.”
When asked how the women support each other, she said, “I’m friends with them, not just on the panel, we’re friends outside the show as well.”
‘There’s a WhatsApp group for single women and we’re all on it. That’s when you can say someone’s feeling down and you can be sure someone will come along and cheer them up.’
He adds: ‘It’s nice to have such a support network, but I realise that not everyone necessarily has that.’
‘Everyone deals with cancer in a different way, but one in two people will have to deal with it. It doesn’t matter if they’ve had it themselves or know someone who has. That’s a very high figure that proves that we really need to create more awareness.’
Brenda discovered a lump under her right breast in late 2015 and began six months of chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy and breast reconstruction.
She was speaking to MailOnline as part of the new GenesisCare Second Chance campaign, which aims to raise awareness of where in the body secondary cancers are most common and what symptoms to look out for.
Secondary breast cancer, also called metastatic breast cancer, occurs when tumor cells that originate in the breast spread to other parts of the body.
Brenda, who is now cancer-free, said it was traumatic to tell her family and friends the scary news but she had to ‘be strong’
Brenda talks about her own battle with the disease: ‘Some things are out of your control, cancer is certainly one of them, but for me it was mainly trying to be as positive as possible’.
‘72% of breast cancer patients do not know which parts of the body can be affected by secondary breast cancer, so they do not know what to look out for’.
Addition: ‘The areas most likely to be affected by breast cancer are your head, your brain, your lungs, your skin and your liver’.
Brenda Edwards is the face of the new GenesisCare Second Chance campaign which aims to raise awareness of where in the body secondary cancer is most likely to strike and the symptoms to look out for. Visit www.genesiscare.com/uk/second-chance for more information.