FIGHTING BACK: 'It was like I had a second chance at life'

Stage and screen star Brenda Edwards shares her experience of surviving cancer as she launches a special exhibition to help others

-  LISA JARVIS

Brenda Edwards is everything in real life that she is on the Loose Women panel - bubbly, funny, passionate and fierce. But she also isn't afraid to show her vulnerable side, and during our exclusive photoshoot she takes the odd moment to compose herself, sometimes tearfully.

Brenda, 55, can be forgiven for some momentary reflection as her extraordinary life has been marred by unimaginable tragedy.

At the age of four she was left orphaned when her devoted parents were killed in a car crash just days before Christmas. Then, in 2022, her world was turned upside down once again when her beloved son Jamal died unexpectedly at the age of 31. In just a few days she will mark what would have been his 34th birthday.

Brenda has also looked death in the eye herself, having been diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2016 after finding a pea-sized lump in her right breast.

She went through six months of gruelling chemotherapy which caused her to go into early menopause, before having a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Despite the pain and anguish she has suffered during her life, Brenda remains positive and somehow, from somewhere, she's found the strength to use her experiences to help others.

The musical theatre star, who shot to fame in 2005 after finishing fourth in The X Factor, has teamed up with GenesisCare - the UK's leading specialist cancer care provider - to raise awareness of secondary cancers.

While, thankfully, Brenda didn't have a secondary spread of the disease, she wants to use her platform to make others aware of the symptoms and has bravely taken part in a special exhibition which showcases the parts of the body where secondary cancers are most likely to occur.

Shockingly 72% of breast cancer survivors don't know where in the body secondary breast cancer is most likely to appear, with one in three not even knowing what secondary cancer is. They are statistics Brenda is determined to change.