SARAH Beeny let the world into her life after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2022 by making a candid, raw and often hard-to-watch documentary for C4.
Now, having finished her treatment, the property developer and TV personality is passionate about changing perceptions of The Big C.
The star made a searingly honest documentary about how the disease affected her and her family[/caption]
Sarah will appear on Great British Bake Off Stand Up To Cancer[/caption]
She says appearing on The Great Celebrity Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer was an enjoyable way of getting her message out there.
“Bake Off is a really fun show and this one is the most magical,” says Sarah, 53, who will compete on next week’s second episode.
“It feels like years ago now, but when I was diagnosed with cancer and then I made the documentary, I realised that the most important message out there is: the earlier the diagnosis, the better the outcome.
“I can’t tell you how many people I met on that journey who thought they had cancer and so didn’t go to the doctor.
“We base our terrible fears of cancer – fears I think everybody has – on the outcome of somebody a long time ago, and cancer treatment moves on so fast because it’s so amazing and the research is so brilliant and absolutely crucial.
“The more we all talk about it, the more people won’t go: ‘Oh, I think I might have cancer. I’ll pretend I don’t.’ They’ll go to the doctor because, actually, treatments now are mind-blowing compared to 10 years ago.
“Making my documentary is probably in my top proudest things that I’ve done. I felt if one person watches it and feels better at the end of it, then that’s good.
“Probably the biggest trauma of my childhood was the fact that my mother died, and then you get told: ‘There it is.’ And I did have a little bit of a breakdown at that moment. But my solution to that was to make a documentary because I’m a control freak [laughs].”
Sarah underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a double mastectomy until January 2023 in her fight against the disease.
“If you talk to anyone who’s had cancer, you’re never ‘cancer-free.’ That’s an interpretation,” she says.
“When you have cancer, they end your treatment and that is really different to being cancer-free.
“They say: ‘That’s the end of your treatment,’ and you go: ‘So what happens now?’ and they’re like: ‘Come back if you think you’ve got cancer,’ and you go: ‘Really? Alright.’
“And that’s kind of really weird, but just the reality. So what I would say is: I’ve finished my treatment for breast cancer and there were no signs of the fact that it might have spread.
“I’m going to be really honest, I’m quite good at moving on. I’ve moved on. So I am talking to you about this, but I haven’t talked about cancer for about two years.
“I really don’t think about it and I don’t talk about it. I just think: ‘That’s done.’ I made the decision that I didn’t want anything to change because of cancer.
“I didn’t want to be able to say: ‘Oh, that was like this before cancer, and I was like this after cancer.’ I thought: ‘No, you’re not owning that, cancer.’
“There are things that have changed along the way. I read Chris van Tulleken’s book Ultra-Processed People about ultra-processed foods and it was so logical that I now make different choices with food.
“But I’m not a saint, I still eat a bag of crisps and have a cheeky McDonald’s.”
Taking part in The Great Celebrity Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer, cooking for Paul Hollywood and new judge Caroline Waldegrave – a long-time friend of Prue Leith’s who has replaced her for this special – was a fun challenge for Sarah.
And the presenter became a Bake Off rule-breaker when she ditched the required hazelnuts in the Technical challenge to bake flapjacks, pulling the wool over the judges’ eyes.
“They never knew, which is brilliant,” smiles Sarah. “I’m not going to reveal whether I won or not, but I am secretly competitive.
“I went on The F Word with Gordon Ramsay before, and we did a ‘brownie off’ and I won. So I’ve got form on this.
“Gordon’s obviously a better chef than me in all possible ways, but he put all sorts of weird stuff in his brownies. I’m like: ‘Keep it pure.’ I’m a big fan of keeping it pure.
“I wasn’t a fan of putting weird things in it. So I just went with it and proved that it’s fine.”
The Showstopper challenge required Sarah to make a bake that recreated her most romantic date in a 3-D biscuit scene, and she opted for a garden patio – the perfect location for a date with her husband Graham Swift, 52.
“I’m really lucky, to be honest, because he’s kind of really cool and really nice, and he is romantic, actually – but there’s a Graham Swift way of being romantic,” laughs Sarah.
“He’s not what I call a Hallmark/flowers romantic. For example, he’s an artist and I’m not allowed in his studio – he’s very strict about it – but I went into his studio because I had to get something and he was painting pictures of each of our four sons to give to me for Christmas.
“Some people will go: ‘That’s a rubbish Christmas present,’ but I think that’s great. People would say: ‘I want a diamond ring,’ but I was like: ‘That’s exactly what I want.’”
Sarah’s full interview is in Saturday’s TV Mag[/caption]
