Shannen Doherty is staying strong despite a new development in her battle with stage IV breast cancer.
“I don’t want to die,” Doherty, 52, told People in an interview published Wednesday, November 29, revealing that the disease has spread to her bones.
Doherty remains determined to fight the illness, asserting, “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better.”
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015, undergoing chemotherapy through February 2017. Two months later, Doherty announced that she was in remission.
By February 2020, however, Doherty’s cancer had returned and developed to stage IV. “I don’t think I’ve processed it,” she confessed on Good Morning America. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways. … You know, our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis. We still have some living to do.”
Doherty has kept fans in the loop amid her health battle, revealing earlier this year that her breast cancer spread to her brain. “I am fortunate as I have great doctors like Dr Amin Mirahdi and the amazing techs at cedar sinai,” she wrote via Instagram in June alongside a video from her first round of radiation five months prior. “But that fear… The turmoil… the timing of it all… This is what cancer can look like.”
In a separate upload shared in June, Doherty gave a glimpse of how she prepped for an operation. “January 16, 2023. Surgery. I had a tumor in my head they wanted to remove and also biopsy. I am clearly trying to be brave but I am petrified,” she captioned the Instagram video. “The fear was overwhelming to me. Scared of all possible bad outcomes, worried about leaving my mom and how that would impact her. Worried that I would come out of surgery not me anymore. This is what cancer can look like.”
Through her public platform, Doherty told People she wants to help raise awareness and funds for cancer research. “It’s insane to me [that] we still don’t have a cure,” she added, noting that being sick has forced her to “look for the bigger purpose in life.”
Doherty hopes to take advantage of new clinical trials for further treatments, and she still wants to act as much as she can. “People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a very early age — ‘You’re done, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she told the outlet. “We’re vibrant, and we have such a different outlook on life. We are people who want to work and embrace life and keep moving forward.”
Doherty isn’t interested in being defined by the status of her health. “My greatest memory is yet to come,” she continued. “I pray. I wake up and go to bed thanking God, praying for the things that matter to me without asking for too much. It connects me to a higher power and spirituality. My faith is my mantra.”
