Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar has given fans a health update on her long-time friend Shannen Doherty’s battle with cancer.
Back in June, Doherty shared a heart-wrenching Instagram post on the treatment she was receiving for her returning cancer, after previously being in remission.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 but after treatment, two years later, she revealed she had gone into remission.
The Charmed actor has been candid about her ongoing battle with cancer and in 2020 announced that she had been diagnosed with stage four cancer. She also explained that the cancer had metastasized to her brain.
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Since then, Gellar has said Doherty is ‘fighting’ and she is a ‘warrior’ in the face of the disease.
Speaking to Access Hollywood in an interview published on Tuesday, Gellar said her friend was incredible and was doing great.
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“There are ups and downs and there are days that are harder than others and there are some days that are easy, but she’s doing great.”
Last month, former co-star Brian Austin Green, also spoke about how Doherty was doing.
Speaking with the Herald Sun in mid-September, he said: “We talk all the time. She's an incredibly tough person. If there's anyone who could put up a real fight to cancer – she's one of them.
“It's not an easy situation, obviously, but I love her to death.
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“And she’s making the absolute best of it.”
Doherty herself has spoken about how she has relied on Green for support over the years while dealing with the disease.
“I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, ‘I can’t really do this,’ and Brian was the one person who - of that group of people that knew - that I told, like, pretty quickly and said, ‘Here, this is what I’m dealing with',” she said.
“So, prior to shooting [the 90210 reboot] he would always call me and say, ‘Listen, you know, whatever happens, I have your back.’ He would look at me and be like, ‘We got this, kiddo’…so Brian helped me through a lot.”
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While admitting to her fans the difficulties dealing with cancer, Doherty’s Instagram page has continued to inspire fans to persevere, regardless of the adversity.
“Today has been a hard day. Obvious reasons and not so obvious reasons. But every day I pick myself up and hope that I do better,” she wrote in a caption of a selfie on October 16.
“That people do better. That what’s obvious is not so convoluted. While I send myself love and peace, I also send love to every single one of you.”
Gerrard Kaonga