Lorraine Kelly praises 'lovely girl' Sarah Harding as she backs cancer campaign
Talking about cancer does not only save the lives of those with the deadly disease, it saves their friends and families pain too. This is why ITV ’s Lorraine Kelly has lent her support to the Change + Check campaign for the fourth year in a row.
The campaign, which aims to raise awareness of breast cancer in younger women, is the brainchild of her show’s features editor, Helen Addis. She was diagnosed with the disease aged 39 after finding a chickpea-sized lump on her nipple.
Four years on, Helen is thriving. And the campaign has sent out thousands of laminated cards to shops to hang in their changing rooms, giving women (and men) a handy guide to the kinds of changes their breast tissue might show if they have cancer.
Lorraine has lent her support to the Change + Check campaign (ITV)Change + Check has, to Lorraine’s knowledge, “already saved the lives of at least 66 women”. And the 63-year-old presenter feels strongly that every person who comes forward with their own cancer story, be they famous or not, helps to make a vital change.
She says: “That’s incredible. It’s not just the women who have saved themselves, it’s their families’ and friends’ lives too. That ripple effect when we lose someone we love, all that has been saved, and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved so far.” Sadly, celebrities such as Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding and campaigner Dame Deborah James have succumbed to the cruel disease.
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Sarah was diagnosed during lockdown, after initially being too scared to see her GP about pain in her breast, and died aged 39 in September 2021. Her dying wish was to find new ways of spotting breast cancer early, so money from the Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal has gone towards launching an innovative study at The Christie hospital in Manchester, which treated her.
The BCAN-RAY (Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Young Women) project will follow 1,000 women in their 30s to map out the risk factors most commonly associated with breast cancer, leading to earlier screening and treatment. Lorraine recalls: “Sarah was such a lovely girl and in her name they’re now doing brilliant things. It’s amazing all the hard work that they’re putting in.
“I’m really glad that’s happening for her family, because that’s her legacy. The work being done in Sarah’s name will save lives, which is tremendous.” The late Deborah, too, has had a huge impact on awareness. She spent her five-year battle with bowel cancer openly showing the world what it was like to live with the disease.
Since her death in June 2022, aged 40, donations to the mum-of-two’s Bowelbabe Fund have exceeded £11million, which is going towards funding clinical trials and supporting those affected by cancer. “She’s the only person in the world I know who dressed as a jobby and still looked glamorous,” remembers Lorraine with a chuckle.
Lorraine recalls: 'Sarah was such a lovely girl' (Getty Images)
'The work being done in Sarah’s name will save lives' (PA)The more we learn about cancer, the grimmer the picture seems. One in two of us born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of it during our lifetime, and the most common are breast, lung, prostate and bowel.
“But the great thing is we’re actually talking about it,” points out Lorraine. “When I was first on TV, we’re talking almost 40 years ago now, we didn’t even say the word ‘cancer’. That’s why I think shows like ours, the daytime shows, we’ve been pioneers in many ways when it comes to health issues and talking about everything.
“We’ve shown live breast exams on camera, experts like Dr Hilary [Jones] have talked us through them, and it’s helped take all the embarrassment and silliness out of it. That’s really important as well, it’s just another part of your body, of course we shouldn’t be embarrassed of it.”
With a 29-year-old daughter, Rosie, Lorraine is all too aware that cancer could one day touch her family again. She lost her Granny Mac to breast cancer in the early 1990s, and when her colleague Helen was diagnosed in 2019, Lorraine was by her hospital bed during chemotherapy to help take her mind off the gruelling treatment.
“What I learned is that people don’t want to be called warriors or brave, they’re just trying to deal with a really difficult situation,” she says. “Helen was saying, ‘Just treat me the same as normal, and don’t call me brave even if you think I am. I’m just trying to get through the best I can’.
When she was having her chemo, we would just sit and talk rubbish. We’d get the big stuff out of the way first – the ‘How are you doing, what’s happening to you?’ – then it would be, OK, let’s talk about something completely different now.”
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The campaign aims to raise awareness of breast cancer in younger women (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)When Helen was strong enough, Lorraine was more than ready to throw her support behind Change + Check, which has become bigger every year since. In the name of the campaign, Lorraine has taken to the roads in her Boob-Bus to spread awareness, gone up in a hot air Boob-loon and joined Coronation Street ’s Sally Dynevor –herself a breast cancer survivor – in a scramble over the roof of the O2 in London.
And this year’s campaign is the most razzle-dazzle yet. Helen has put together a choir of 20 women who found out they had breast cancer after seeing Change + Check on Lorraine – and are now setting their sights on the Christmas No.1 with their single, Golden.
It’s already been championed by Alfie Boe, who appeared on the Lorraine show to invite the choir to the London Palladium to perform it. “God knows how Helen’s going to top this,” laughs Lorraine. “That would be incredible if they got the Christmas No.1. The lyrics are just so poignant.
“One of the most distressing things about this illness is the fact that so many younger women are getting this. It’s absolutely tragic. But thanks to education and campaigns like Change + Check, more people than ever are aware of what their normal is and are learning the importance of checking themselves regularly.”
- To listen to the song and pre-order the single visit itv.com/lorraine/articles/listen-to-the-amazing-change-check-choir Lorraine, weekdays, 9am on ITV
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