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Sarah Ferguson has revealed that her double cancer diagnosis “felt like a death sentence”
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The Duchess of York, 65, was speaking to U.K. newspaper The Times ahead of an outing with her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, to raise awareness of cancer in young people
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Ferguson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, and then a malignant melanoma was also discovered in 2024
Sarah Ferguson is opening up about her double cancer diagnosis.
Ahead of an outing with her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, to raise awareness of cancer in young people, she told U.K. newspaper The Times that the medical news “felt like a death sentence.”
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The Duchess of York, 65, was diagnosed with breast cancer (and underwent a single mastectomy) in 2023 and then received a diagnosis of malignant melanoma (a form of skin cancer) six months later in January 2024.
Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson has also written a comment piece for the publication in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust, of which she has been a patron for about 35 years. Her daughters have followed in her footsteps and also now support the charity.
“I was 63 when I was diagnosed with cancer for the first time, and cancer at any age is traumatic. But as adults, we have maturity and life experience to help us advocate for ourselves and cope with challenges,” Fergie explained. “We can seek help if we need it, and most importantly, your voices are, sadly, often taken more seriously.”
Ferguson was writing in support of the charity Teenage Cancer Trust’s #AndYoungPeople campaign.
On Wednesday, April 23, the duchess will be joined by her daughters to visit teenage cancer victims at a facility in London. “It’s incredibly important to me to seek to amplify the voices and experiences of people with cancer who receive less attention, whose voices are not listened to, and who can be overlooked,” she added. “One group consistently neglected by those developing health plans and policies is teenagers and young adults with cancer. The impact can be devastating.”
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She said young people with cancer face a particular set of challenges. “While difficulty accessing trials impacts patients of all ages, young people are uniquely disadvantaged. This is because they are more likely to experience rare cancers or are too old to take part in pediatric trials and too young for adult trials,” she noted. “We must find solutions to these challenges and save more young lives.”
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Princess Beatrice, left, with her mother Sarah Ferguson in London in Dec. 2022
“The third area is access to mental health support. A trust survey of psychologists found that 87 per cent don’t feel that national provisions meet the needs of teenagers and young people with the disease. It is our duty to help amplify their voices and ensure they are not overlooked.”
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As she launched the new Youth Impact Council at New York Climate Week in September 2024, Fergie told PEOPLE how she was feeling. “I think that you never really get rid of the worry about health. For every sort of melanoma, you never really know where it is. You look at everything and you’re certainly more aware,” the Duchess of York said. “It’s been an extraordinary journey to have gone through a mastectomy, and then you have to keep having checks, and then you think you’re going to get it again. It’s a lot of very fragile mind work.”
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Sarah Ferguson with Princess Eugenie in 2017
“I think that also gives me empathy to understand the fragility of the mind. A lot of young people have fragile, vulnerable times, with cyberbullying and chronic cruelty from other people. I think that’s something I address, I am adamant about cruelty through social media,” she continued. “My health is really good now, but you have to be a bit more cognitive and not push yourself too much, which I do.”
Read the original article on People
