Sarah Beeny on cancer battle: ‘I always assumed I’d die aged 39’

TV presenter and property expert Sarah Beeny has admitted she didn’t think she would ever live past 39.

The New Country Lives star, who is now aged 51, was just 10 years-old when she lost her mother to breast cancer aged 39.

Last August, Beeny was given the devastating news that she too had breast cancer.

She was given the all-clear eight months later after undergoing gruelling treatment, which saw her hair fall out, but says she is amazed that she has made it this far.

“My mum died when she was 39; I think I’ve always assumed that I would die at 39, so I’ve always been very impatient, trying to fit loads of stuff in,” she told The Guardian in a new interview ahead of her documentary, Sarah Beeny vs Cancer.

During the documentary, which airs on Channel 4 on June 12 at 9pm, Beeny is seen unearthing her mother’s medical records and discusses with an oncologist how different the treatment would have been today.

“I suppose, if I’m honest, I wanted to get her records to go: ‘She had that treatment and it didn’t work. But I’m having this treatment, and therefore it will work because now it’s better.’ I wanted to prove that I was going to get better, to myself.

“I was quite shocked by how they talked about her, because we’ve come a long way. Loads of things they didn’t tell her. Misogyny, alive and kicking. The chemotherapy she had would have made her infertile, but they didn’t bother telling her,” she added to the publication.

“I wouldn’t change anything. Life has its weird ways of being what it is. If my mother hadn’t died, I probably wouldn’t have met [husband] Graham, because I’d probably have gone to a different school. I met him because my brother [Diccon] met his sister.”