Elizabeth Hurley has spoken out this week at her anger at being unable to help her grandmother who died of breast cancer.
The actress, who is a global ambassador for the Estee Lauder Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, spoke about how her grandmother showed scars from a double mastectomy but had changed the subject.
“At that time, there was so little written about breast cancer,” she told The Times. “It wasn’t until I started to learn about breast cancer through Evelyn Lauder that I began to feel so angry that I hadn’t known more at the time, when perhaps I could have helped her.
“We know that if a cancer is found and treated early, there is a 95% chance of recovery,” she continued. “If only my grandmother and countless other scared woman could have known this.”
Hurley was speaking ahead of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Her grandmother died in 1992.
Her comments come in the wake of television presenter Michaela Strachan revealing that she had been diagnosed with the disease.
She told the Mail on Sunday magazine that she was forced to have both of her breasts removed.
“The tears started to roll as my doctor tried to tell me what would happen next, but I only took in every fifth word or so. The only word that registered was ‘cancer’,” she said.
