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- Shannen Doherty has Stage 4 cancer and says she’s getting rid of her material possessions
- She shared on her podcast “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty” that she felt she “needed to make things clean, just in case.”
- “I get to take my mom on vacations because I’ll have all this extra money lying around,” she said.
“Beverly Hills, 90210” star Shannen Doherty has Stage 4 cancer and says she’s learning to let go of her material possessions so she can focus on what matters.
The actor opened up about clearing her storage unit to get rid of things that no longer bring her joy on Monday’s episode of her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty.”
“The cancer, for me, has really made me take stock of my life and shift my priorities, and my priority at the moment is my mom,” Doherty said, adding that she knows it’ll be hard on her mother if she dies first.
Doherty added that even though she had high hopes for medical treatments that would “keep prolonging” her life, she still felt that she “needed to make things clean, just in case.”
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 but went into remission in 2017. In 2020, she announced on “Good Morning America” that her cancer had returned as stage 4 cancer, meaning that it had spread beyond its original location.
“I don’t want her to have a bunch of stuff to deal with,” Doherty said, referring to her mother. “I don’t want her to have four storage units filled with furniture because I have a furniture obsession.”
The “Charmed” actor said she had “accumulated so much crap” due to her love of antique furniture shopping, and all the items were just sitting in storage.
“I’m not enjoying it and others aren’t enjoying it, and do I really need any of it? Do I need to have three dining room tables?” she said. “The answer is no, none of us really need all the stuff that we have, and we could all do with a little bit of downsizing and not be a hoarder, which I was becoming with all my furniture.”
Doherty added she hopes to sell off all the things she didn’t need so she could have the money to take trips and make more memories with her loved ones.
“I get to take my mom on vacations because I’ll have all this extra money lying around, and I’m not digging into the money in my savings that’s going to make sure everybody in my life is taken care of once I’m dead,” she said.
The 52-year-old said it took time for her to come to terms with the idea of clearing her possessions and the various properties she owned because it felt like she was “throwing in the towel.”
“It feels like you’re giving up on something that was very special and important to you,” she said. “But you know that it’s the right thing to do and that it’s going to give you a sense of peace and a sense of calm because you’re helping the people that you leave behind just have a cleaner, easier transition.”
In the US, about 240,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in women and about 2,100 in men each year, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Common symptoms of breast cancer include a hard, painless lump around the breast area, nipple discharge, and dimpling on the breast in a way that’s similar to an orange peel.
While most breast cancers are typically found in women who are 50 years old or older, cases of breast cancer — along with colorectal and cervical cancer — in people under 50 are on the rise.
