Brave Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding went from being a party girl to a cancer campaigner – using her words to save lives
GIRLS Aloud star Sarah Harding went from being a party girl to a cancer campaigner, hoping to spare others from the disease that claimed her life yesterday.
The 39-year-old revealed in August last year that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
She had put off seeing a doctor because of the pandemic and wanted to urge others not to do the same so wrote a book, called Hear Me Out.
Speaking in March this year, Sarah said: “Writing about my cancer, I found myself thinking, ‘Do I want everyone to know this
“I kept thinking that if there was a chance just one person who read my story decided to get checked and was treated in time, then it was worth it.
“As scary as it was to go public about my diagnosis, it was the right thing to do, and the amount of support I’ve received is incredible.
“I’ve been inundated with lovely messages from my fans. I’m grateful beyond words for that.”
Sarah, who has two half-brothers, spent the early years of her life in Ascot, Berks, but moved to Stockport with her family when she was 14.
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As a teenager, she flirted with trouble and walked out of school when she was 15.
Her parents drifted apart and Sarah decided to change her surname from her father’s, Hardman, to Harding.
Sarah said: “I was a bit of a reprobate as a teenager. There are certain times when you go off the rails.”
But she always knew she was destined to be a singer.
She said: “I was doing gigs at 16, belting out all the big ballads like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.”
Sarah had a variety of jobs, including waitressing at Pizza Hut, driving a van, debt collecting and moonlighting as a BT telephone operator, just to keep the money coming in.
But her audition for ITV show Popstars: The Rivals changed everything as she was picked as the final member of Girls Aloud.
Along with her bandmates Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts, she would go on to dominate the charts for a decade — and be a regular face on the party circuit.
'HARDCORE HARDING'
Sarah was not afraid to party hard and won the nickname “Hardcore Harding”.
She later said: “I never even enjoyed getting drunk before the band. The drinking was more to give me more confidence, especially when I was going through my little wild-child stage.”
Sarah’s love life was also a rollercoaster — with the charismatic singer enjoying flings with Calum Best, Hollywood actor Stephen Dorff and TV presenter Steve Jones.
Calum later spoke about his 2006 romance with Sarah, describing their love as “eight months of madness”.
After a stint in rehab and getting clean, Sarah decided to take back control of her life.
She tried to launch a solo career in 2015 and later became a reality TV favourite, winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.
Following Sarah’s cancer diagnosis, her Girls Aloud bandmates rallied around her, fully supporting her decision to write her autobiography.
An insider at the time said: “The girls are in touch regularly. Everybody is putting the past behind them - the book is Sarah’s way of doing that for good.
“It feels therapeutic and cathartic to get it all down.”
TAKE BACK CONTROL
In the book, Sarah’s bandmate Cheryl wrote a poignant first-person piece detailing the moment she was told of her friend’s diagnosis.
She also wrote passionately about Sarah’s life and said listening to her friend lamenting the past was difficult to hear.
Cheryl wrote: “The news of Sarah’s illness hit me so hard. Initially, I felt helpless.
“I struggled to find the right words to say when I spoke to her, and I didn’t know what to do or how to be.
“Now I just want to be there for her in any way I can. She might want to cry or rant or even have a laugh, but wherever it is, just be there.
“To hear her talk about what might have been in her life, and what should have been, destroys me.
“It’s broken me now, just thinking about it.
“I don’t want Sarah to have regrets, and I don’t want her kicking herself for things she’s done in the past.
“This illness would have happened to her regardless of how she chose to live her life.
“It is not, as some might suggest, a result of the person she is or has been.
“It’s just one of those awful things that life deals a person sometimes. That’s it.”
Signs of killer
AROUND 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
Of these, 11,500 women and 85 men are likely to die — that is nearly 1,000 deaths each month or 31 each day.
Breast cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the UK and one in seven women will develop it in their lifetime.
THESE are some of the telltale signs of the illness to look out for:
- A new lump or thickening in your breast or armpit.
- Change in the size, shape or feel of your breast.
- Skin changes in the breast, including puckering, dimpling, a rash or skin redness.
- Fluid leaking from the nipple in a woman who is not pregnant or breastfeeding.
- Nipple changes, including a change of position.
- A swelling in your armpit or around your collarbone.
- Pain in your breast
Laughs and cringes at reunion for Girls Aloud
SARAH Harding arranged for her former Girls Aloud bandmates to come together not long after her cancer treatments started.
She organised a secret reunion with Cheryl, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle and Kimberley Walsh at Soho Farmhouse, Oxon, and detailed their meeting in her autobiography Hear Me Out.
It was the first time all five women had been together in a room for almost a decade.
The women ordered a Japanese meal from Pen Yen, a restaurant on the farm, and as well as reminiscing about the years gone past decided to watch their 2006 documentary.
Girls Aloud: Off the Record aired on E4 and showed the girls in their heyday.
Sarah recalled: “We were all so different then; there was a sort of sweet naivety about us.
"I remember Cheryl in particular almost watching her old self through fingers over her eyes, mortified at some of her comments and antics.
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“Watching Off the Record provoked lots of laughing and even more cringing, but I have to say, I looked on fondly. ‘You only miss this when it’s gone,’ I told the girls.”
Sarah’s diagnosis brought the women together again and Kimberley revealed how all the band, including Sarah, had been in touch following the birth of her son Nate in June.
