Former Hollyoaks star Ali Bastian has opened up about her ongoing battle with breast cancer, sharing the emotional and physical toll it has taken on her.
Ali was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer back in June. The life-altering news came as a complete shock to Ali, who first sought medical advice after discovering a lump while breastfeeding her daughter Isabella, who is now 20 months old.
Ali Bastian emotional amid cancer treatment
In a recent Instagram post, Ali opened up about her struggles. Clad in a baggy grey T-shirt and a pink headscarf, she snapped a selfie from the couch where she shared her emotion.
There is cortisol in tears and they are better out than in.
“Some days you don’t feel like the fighter people as tell you you are, and that’s okay too,” Ali wrote. Sharing her upset, Ali then added: “This is not an easy path. There is cortisol in tears and they are better out than in.”
The actress is best known for her role as Becca Dean in Hollyoaks from 2001 to 2007.
She also had a successful run on Strictly Come Dancing in 2009 – where she reached the semi-finals and placed third.
The journey ahead for Ali includes weekly chemotherapy sessions, with plans for a mastectomy and radiotherapy in the near future.
‘It was a total shock’
In an interview with OK! magazine earlier this year, Ali opened up about her diagnosis.
“It was a total shock. I have mornings when I wake up and I’ve forgotten… and then suddenly I remember. I’m still trying to process it,” she said.
Initially, there was hope that the lump might be due to a blocked duct. However, further tests at a specialist clinic confirmed her worst fears – cancer.
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Her husband, David O’Mahony, also emphasised the overwhelming shock and unfairness of the situation.
“I was with the kids and Ali stuck her head round the door and said that cancerous cells had turned up in the biopsy,” he told OK!.
“She said it in the most subtle way so the girls didn’t twig. I could see how scared and in shock she was. It’s so tempting to try and ‘positive’ your way through news like this but it just hit us like a sledgehammer. I just had a feeling of it being so unfair that Ali had been dealt this hand.”
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