Former Charmed and Beverly Hills, 90210 star Shannen Doherty shared a powerful image on Instagram yesterday, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The photo shows Doherty crying and holding large clumps of her own hair. As she explains in the caption, this photo was taken after she had started chemotherapy to treat her breast cancer, and it's an extremely personal image for her.
"I was sick, felt like I was losing myself," Doherty wrote. "Gained people and lost people. Got weak and got strong. Felt ugly and yet more beautiful inside than I had ever felt before."
Although she was diagnosed more than two years ago and has been in remission since April, Doherty said she remembers this moment as if it were yesterday.
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"Cancer has so many phases. Shock, denial, acceptance, anger, resentment, rebellion, fear, appreciation, beauty. Remission," she wrote. "Even then, the phases keep coming. Cancer is with you forever."
As those who have been through a cancer battle know, she wrote, cancer still impacts your life in both good and bad ways "even after you’ve kicked it’s ass."
She's sharing the photo now to support others who are going through the same emotionally trying time as she was just a couple of years ago, and to show them that there is hope of remission even though breast cancer will always be with them.
"You still go thru the roller coaster of emotions," she wrote. "You still need support and love. And you can still grasp life and live, live, live."
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For more stories about detecting, treating, or living with breast cancer, click here.
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