Shannen Doherty isn’t ready to give up on life after learning that her Stage 4 breast cancer has continued to metastasize throughout her body.
“I don’t want to die,” she told People in an interview published Wednesday after sharing that the cancer has now spread to her bones.
The “90210, Beverly Hills” star, 52, said that she isn’t afraid of death because she knows where she’s going.
“I think I would be afraid of death if I wasn’t a good person, but I am,” she said, adding, “I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to die, like, ever.”
The “Charmed” actress furthered that she’s not “done” with life.
“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. I’m just not done,” she said. “My greatest memory is yet to come.”
Doherty said that people often think that cancer patients are incapable of enjoying life, but noted that’s not the case.
“People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. People put you out to pasture at a very early age —‘You’re done, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she said. “We’re vibrant, we have such a different outlook on life.”
“We’re just so grateful for every second, every hour, every day that we get to be here,” she added.
She remained positive about her medical treatment and shared that she is on “a really good regimen now.”
“It’s working well for me,” she said, explaining that she has been taking her diagnosis “day by day, month by month, year by year.”
In January, Doherty learned that her cancer had spread to her brain and she had to do radiation and undergo brain surgery to remove a tumor, which she named “Bob.”
“Bob had to get removed and dissected to see his pathology and then i had to do some more brain radiation,” she told the magazine. “It’s been a journey. Definitely one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through in my entire life.”
After the surgery, Doherty struggled to even hold a glass in her right hand from brain swelling, and experienced small “glitches” for three or four months before everything “came right back.”
“I’m a big believer that everything you go through is for a reason,” she said, adding, “I have an amazing support system and I’m not a quitter.”
Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and announced that she went into remission two years later after undergoing chemotherapy. But by 2019, Doherty’s disease had returned and she revealed she had Stage 4 cancer the next year.
However, the TV star believes she has gone through her cancer journey so she could help others.
“My life up until this moment was all getting me ready for what God has me here to accomplish,” she said. “I think that’s to reach people who have cancer, that are impacted by it, in such a profound way to help bring awareness, to help raise money.”
She added, “I do it because I have a platform and I have a responsibility, not only to myself but to my fellow cancer family.”
