Staying Passionate During Stage 4 Cancer
- 90210 star Shannen Doherty, 52, has been fighting metastatic breast cancer, and also lives each and every day passionately fighting for animal rights.
- In addition to her fight to help end horse slaughter, Doherty has also urged people to stop using poison to control rodent problems, saying that it’s affecting owls and other animals.
- Stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer, means that your cancer has spread to distant areas of the body. Even though there is currently no cure for metastatic breast cancer, doctors have many options to treat this stage advanced stage of breast cancer, and there is currently more hope with living with this disease.
The nature-enthusiast, who lives in serene Malibu, Calif., recently teamed up with Horse Heroes Alliancethrough the non-profit Horses In Our Handsto help end horse slaughter.
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In addition to her fight to help end horse slaughter, Doherty has also urged people to stop using poison to control rodent problems, saying that it’s affecting owls and other animals.
"Hopefully seeing what rodent poison does to other animals like this owl, will help people find it in their heart to stop with the poison," the advocate says. "Thank you to @cawildlife for taking in so many animals that humans hurt #stopwithpoison." The video shows a sick owl getting treated via IV.
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Doherty, who was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, announced that her cancer had returned at an advanced stage after going into remission in 2018. She has made it a commitment to live life purpose, and that's exactly what she is doing by being a voice for animals.
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The advocate also reposted a photo of a wolf in support of the non-profit organization IFAW, which improves conditions for animals and humans.
What Still Brings You Joy? Your Emotional Health is So Important
"We can fight this and we should," she said of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to remove federal protection for all gray wolves in the United States, aside from parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
Animals and Healing
It is often said that animals improve our quality of life, and that can especially be true for people battling cancer like Doherty. Though she has always been an advocate, her passion for animals gives her something to focus on and put her heart into each and every day.
We often need to keep going, and there have been studies showing the power of passion of positivity affecting the outcome of your disease. What still brings you joy? It’s important to do things to feed your emotional health just as much as your physical. For Doherty, it usually involves furry friends, but she also enjoys hanging out with other humans.
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Understanding Stage 4 Breast Cancer
Stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer, means that your cancer has now spread to distant areas of the body. Even though there is currently no cure for metastatic breast cancer, doctors have many options to treat this stage advanced stage of breast cancer.
Hormone therapy, chemotherapy and targeted drugs are all options to talk to her doctor about, depending on your individual needs. Sometimes surgery and/or radiation is considered as part of the treatment, but mainly it is important to focus on improving your quality of life.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer, but there are so many breast cancer survivors and people living with the disease today.
The American Cancer Society reports that there were more than 3.8 million U.S. women with a history of breast cancer alive at the start of 2019. Some of the women were cancer-free, and others still had evidence of the disease, but they also reported that more than 150,000 breast cancer survivors were living with metastatic disease, three-fourths of whom were originally diagnosed with stage I-III. And with ongoing advancements in treatments and options out there today that can dramatically reduce symptoms, there are many reasons to be hopeful.
Contributing by SurvivorNet staff.
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