Michaela Strachan – who is on James Martin‘s Saturday Morning today (Saturday, March 30) – has opened up about her “shocker” of a year.
The star has had a difficult time of it of late, losing three loved ones, including her close friend, Lucy.
Michaela Strachan on ‘shocker of a year’
During an interview with the Express recently, Michaela opened up about how difficult the past year has been for her.
“These were people our age. I know I’m getting on but I’m 57 – I shouldn’t know this number of people who have died,” she said at the time.
“Last year was heartbreakingly sad. I lost several people in a short space of time. I lost my sister-in-law to cancer, my partner Nick’s best friend had a heart attack, one of my friends lost her son at 35, and then one of my closest friends died,” she said.
She then continued, saying: “I went from her funeral, basically, to Pilgrimage [BBC Two programme]. So I was carrying grief, which made it a different journey.”
Michaela on being diagnosed with breast cancer
Michaela then went on to speak about how she’d grown close to her friend, Lucy after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Back in 2014, Michaela herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday at the time, she said: “‘I couldn’t get my head around the fact that on Monday morning I’d been apparently healthy, by Tuesday I had cancer, and by Wednesday I was talking about a double mastectomy.”
She ended up having a double mastectomy. Thankfully, in 2019, she was declared cancer-free.
However, Lucy sadly didn’t make a recovery – and passed away just before Michaela began filming the BBC series, Pilgrimage.
Michaela Strachan talks grieving during Pilgrimage
Michaela explained that she had signed up for Pilgrimage because she wanted to tackle the two-week trek of North Wales.
However, coming from her friend’s funeral made the experience “different” for her.
She then said that without doing the show, she doesn’t think that she would have “processed the grief” of losing her pal.
She explained that instead, she would have likely “compartmentalised” it.
Read more: Michaela Strachan: From CBBC to Springwatch and beating cancer
James Martin’s Saturday Kitchen airs on Saturday (March 30) at 9.30am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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