Sarah Harding’s death saves life of best pals’ mum by prompting her to get checked for breast cancer

SARAH Harding’s heartbreaking breast cancer death has saved the life of her best pals’s mum by prompting her to get checked.

Girls Aloud star Sarah died aged 39 last September after a brave battle with the disease.

The tragedy persuaded her closest friend’s mother Jean Sapiano, 67, to finally check out a small lump she’d had under her arm for over a year.

Doctors discovered Jean had aggressive breast cancer and performed a mastectomy last month.

Much-loved pop star Sarah was godmother to her long-term pal Joanne’s three boys.

And mum Jean said last night: “Sarah has shown she is the best fairy godmother ever.

“She has saved the life of her godchildren’s grandma.

“What could be a more special gift than that? Even when she is no longer here.”

Sarah, who found fame with the girl group after auditioning for ITV reality show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, had been a regular in the Sapiano household in the girls’ teenage years.

Jean added: “Sarah and Joanne were inseparable. They met around Stockport through their boyfriends at the time. They were like sisters very quickly.

“Sarah was always at our house. She came on family holiday with us and everything.

“She was really great to have around. Always singing. Joanne went to all the auditions with her for Popstars. The girls were together every step of the way.

"When Joanne got married, Sarah was maid of honour and then when she had the boys she became their godmother.

“She was wonderful with the boys, always buying them clothes and going over to see them when she came back from the South.”

The news of a Sarah’s death rocked the family and made Jean worry about the little lump under her right armpit.

Speaking from her Stockport home, Jean recalled: “We were all in shock. It doesn’t seem real that someone so young and beautiful could be taken from the world.

“At night I lay there in bed and I suddenly started thinking about the lump. It had been there over a year but I hadn’t worried about it. .

'I WISH I COULD THANK SARAH'

“I know it sounds stupid but it really was like suddenly Sarah was saying to me, ‘Check it out.’

“So I went down to the doctors and she referred me straightway for further investigations.”

Jean’s operation went well and she is hoping to receive the all-clear from doctors this week.

She added: “I was told if I had left it much longer it would have spread into the lymph nodes and I would have had much less chance of survival.

“I wish I could thank Sarah. I hope that my story will help push other people to get themselves checked out as well.

Sarah died barely 12 months after she was diagnosed.

In her biography Hear Me Out, she told how she initially put off getting medical advice when she first found lumps under her arm in December 2019.