Shannen Doherty Will ‘Embrace Life’ as Most cancers Spreads to Bones (Unique)

Shannen Doherty doesn’t mince phrases.

“I don’t wish to die,” she asserts as a sliver of Los Angeles sunshine falls throughout her face on the set of her PEOPLE cowl shoot 4 days earlier than Thanksgiving.

The actress — who’s finest identified for her roles on the hit ’90s TV present Beverly Hills, 90210 and later, Charmed — is characteristically candid, upbeat and dry-witted as she opens up about her Stage 4 breast most cancers that has unfold to her bones.

As she continues to obtain remedy, the 52-year-old is extra decided than ever to maintain transferring ahead. “I’m not accomplished with dwelling. I’m not accomplished with loving. I’m not accomplished with creating. I’m not accomplished with hopefully altering issues for the higher,” she says, cracking a smile. “I’m simply not — I’m not accomplished.”

Doherty’s eight-year journey with most cancers has led her to replicate on the massive image of her life, a theme she’s going to discover on her memoir-style podcast, Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty, premiering Dec. 6 on iHeartRadio, the place she plans to debate all the pieces from profession highlights and previous relationships to the quite a few phases of her sickness and well being regimens.

After her preliminary breast most cancers analysis in 2015 that she first shared with PEOPLE, Doherty had a mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy and radiation.

In April 2017, she revealed on Instagram she went into remission. However by 2019, the most cancers returned — and he or she introduced her analysis of metastatic stage 4 most cancers the next yr.

“While you ask your self, ‘Why me? Why did I get most cancers?’ after which ‘Why did my most cancers come again? Why am I stage 4?,’ that leads you to search for the larger goal in life,” she explains.

She hopes to lift consciousness and funds for most cancers analysis — whereas displaying that folks with terminal most cancers nonetheless have lots to contribute to the world. “It’s insane to me [that] we nonetheless don’t have a treatment,” she says.

In June, Doherty shared on Instagram that the most cancers had unfold to her mind and that she had undergone surgical procedure 5 months earlier to take away a mind tumor. With darkish humor, she named it Bob.

“He needed to get eliminated and dissected to see his pathology,” she explains. “It was undoubtedly one of many scariest issues I’ve ever been by in my total life.”

Proper now, Doherty hopes to get into medical trials as new remedies are developed. (It’s estimated 168,000 persons are dwelling with metastatic breast most cancers, in response to the Susan G. Komen group.) However she is most pushed by her want to show that she will be able to work regardless of her most cancers analysis. And it is that deep-seated sense of self-discipline that helps her stick with it.

“Folks simply assume that it means you possibly can’t stroll, you possibly can’t eat, you possibly can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a really early age —‘You’re accomplished, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she says. “We’re vibrant, and we now have such a distinct outlook on life. We’re individuals who wish to work and embrace life and maintain transferring ahead.”

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Every morning, the actress feels grateful for one more day along with her associates, her household and her German shepherd Bowie.

“My biggest reminiscence is but to return,” she says. “I pray. I get up and go to mattress thanking God, praying for the issues that matter to me with out asking for an excessive amount of. It connects me to the next energy and spirituality. My religion is my mantra.”

As she explains, when you’ve gotten most cancers, all the pieces is extra poignant, and the sky is bluer.

“I do know it sounds tacky and loopy, however you’re simply extra conscious of all the pieces, and you’re feeling so blessed. We’re the individuals who wish to work probably the most, as a result of we’re simply so grateful for each second, each hour, on daily basis we get to be right here.”

For extra on Shannen Doherty’s most cancers journey and the way she’s discovering moments of pleasure amid her analysis, choose up the most recent concern of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.