Shannen Doherty Hopes Her ‘Legacy’ Will Give a ‘Face and Emotion’ to Cancer

For Shannen Doherty, it’s important to be “as honest as possible” about her fight against cancer.

The actress first battled breast cancer between March 2015 and April 2017, and she revealed in February 2020 that the illness had returned. “It’s going to come out in a matter of days or a week that — I’m stage IV. So my cancer came back. And that’s why I’m here,” she told Good Morning America at the time. “I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”

Doherty opened up about her emotional lows she’s experienced throughout her health journey. “I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?’” she admitted. “And then I go, ‘Well, why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do.”

In September 2021, Doherty explained why she decided to share details of her struggles with her fans. “I feel like I have a responsibility in my more public life, which I separate from my acting life … to talk about cancer and perhaps educate people more and let people know that people with stage IV are very much alive and very active,” she said during a virtual panel for her movie List of a Lifetime, which follows a woman who makes a bucket list after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.

When asked whether she made a bucket list following her own diagnosis, Doherty said that she didn’t “I’m very much like, ‘There’s no bucket list because I’m going to be the longest-living person with cancer,’” she told the panel. “If I had to say one, it would just be living. That’s the only thing on my list at this point.”

Keep scrolling to read more of Doherty’s most candid quotes about her cancer battle: