Shannen Doherty is thankful for her fans’ prayers but wants to assure them she’s doing OK amid her Stage 4 cancer battle.
“I’m good. I love it when people say, ‘We’re praying for you.’ … but there comes a point where you go, ‘I got this. Like I’m fine, I’m good.’ There’s a lot of people in the world that could use prayers and I’m feeling great,” Doherty, 49, told close friend Sarah Michelle Gellar in an interview for “Entertainment Tonight.”
“I have an amazing medical team behind me.”
Thanks to her incredible support system of friends and family, the former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star said she’s in great shape.
“I’m doing better than OK. I’m doing well,” she said. “I feel strong and healthy and confident and happy.”
The “Charmed” actress said she decided to reveal her diagnosis because it was a part of her lawsuit against her former managers and would “come up anyway,” but she realized he could use her platform to educate people on the realities of what “Stage 4” means.
“I want to really push for education and awareness and raise more money, and I want people to not hear Stage 4 cancer and think of the person as gray and falling over,” she explained. “You get written off so quickly even though you’re still vital and healthy and happy.
“People instantly think it’s a death sentence and it’s not.”
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015. After a two-year battle, the actress announced her cancer was in remission. Doherty never stopped worrying about her cancer possibly returning, as she said at the time the next five years would be crucial.
She announced her Stage 4 cancer diagnosis in February 2020 and admitted she was “petrified.”