Shannen Doherty’s most empowering quotes about her cancer battle before her death
Shannen Doherty was a fighter during her years-long cancer battle.
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum died on Saturday at age 53, nine years after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.
Her publicist, Leslie Sloane, told PEOPLE the actress “was surrounded by her loved ones” when she passed away.
Doherty went into remission in 2017, but less than three years later, she announced she had stage 4 breast cancer.
Doherty was open about her health battle in the final years of her life.
“I’m not done with living,” she said less than eight months before her death. “I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not — I’m not done.”
Here are Shannen Doherty’s most empowering quotes about her cancer battle.
August 2015
Doherty confirmed she was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015 at age 44.
“Yes, I have breast cancer, and I am currently undergoing treatment,” the actress said in a statement to PEOPLE.
“I am continuing to eat right, exercise and stay very positive about my life,” she continued. “I am thankful to my family, friends and doctors for their support and, of course, my fans who have stood by me.”
August 2016
One year after revealing her diagnosis, Doherty opened up about her husband Kurt Iswarienko’s support. The couple’s marriage later ended in 2023 as Doherty filed for divorce and alleged that he cheated for two years.
“I could not have gotten through this without my husband,” Doherty said to Entertainment Tonight in Aug. 2016. “My marriage was always strong, but it’s made my marriage a thousand times stronger. He’s never missed a chemo. He’s never missed a sick day.”
October 2016
The “Heathers” star shared more about her health battle on Chelsea Handler’s talk show in Oct. 2016.
“I think what’s beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you, and tears you down and builds you. It remakes you so many different times,” she said.
“The person I thought I was supposed to be or was going to be or who I thought I was six months ago is now somebody completely different,” Doherty continued. “And I realize, ‘Wow, I really thought that I was so brave and so gracious this entire time and really I was just hiding.’ “
April 2017
Doherty shared the news that she was in remission in April 2017.
“What does remission mean? I heard that word and have no idea how to react. Good news? YES. Overwhelming. YES,” she said.
“Now more waiting. As every single one of my fellow cancer family knows, the next five years is crucial. Reoccurrences happen all the time. Many of you have shared that very story with me. So with a heart that is certainly lighter, I wait.”
September 2018
During an appearance on “Good Morning America” in Sept. 2018, Doherty said she was in good health.
“Everything’s going really well. You hear the word remission and it’s a rush of different emotions. It’s like, ‘what’s next?’ ” she said. “There’s a little bit of fear and apprehension. I felt lost for a second. I was like, ‘now what?'”
“But then it sort of starts seeping in and then you get joyous and you get so excited but then you got to wait for that five-year mark and that 10-year mark — so remission is a crazy word to me.”
Doherty also said sharing her cancer journey on social media “helped me because when I got back, these beautiful stories from other people, what they were going through … giving me hope and support and love, it really helped. It’s truly a family. There’s something so beautiful about the journey.”
February 2020
In Feb. 2020, Doherty revealed on “GMA” that her cancer came back and was in stage four.
“I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways,” she said.
Doherty added: “I definitely have days where I say why me. And then I go, well, why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this? None of us do. But I would say that my first reaction is always concern about how — how am I going to tell my mom, my husband.”
She also said it was “weird” to be diagnosed with cancer but still outlive her “Beverly Hills, 90210” co-star Luke Perry, who died in March 2019 from a stroke at age 52.
March 2020
Doherty said on Instagram in March 2020 that she was “embracing every day” of her life amid her cancer battle.
“After a year of dealing with cancer coming back and other stresses, I’m back at it. Taking care of myself and embracing every day,” she wrote in her social media post. “It’s not always easy. I have days I’m depressed or just plain lazy. But I push thru with the help of friends.”
September 2020
Doherty told Elle in Sept. 2020 how she was preparing for death.
“I haven’t sat down to write letters. That’s something I need to do,” she said. “There are things I need to say to my mom. I want my husband to know what he’s meant to me.”
She also said at the time she considered making video messages for her loved ones to watch after her passing.
“But whenever it comes time for me to do it, it feels so final,” she noted. “It feels like you’re signing off, and I’m not signing off. I feel like I’m a very, very healthy human being. It’s hard to wrap up your affairs when you feel like you’re going to live another 10 or 15 years.”
October 2021
The “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” actress said she was “fighting to stay alive” on “GMA” in Oct. 2021.
“I never want to operate [like I’m dying]. I just want to operate as I don’t have things to check off because I’m going to keep fighting to stay alive,” she said.
“A lot of people who get diagnosed with Stage 4, they sort of get written off. It’s assumed that they cannot work or they can’t work at their full capacity, and that is not true,” Doherty added. “That is something that I would really like for people to stop assuming and give us a chance to prove them wrong.”
June 2023
In June 2023, Doherty shared a clip of “what cancer can look like” before she underwent brain surgery.
“I am clearly trying to be brave but I am petrified,” Doherty wrote. “The fear was overwhelming to me. Scared of all possible bad outcomes, worried about leaving my mom and how that would impact her. Worried that I would come out of surgery not me anymore.”
September 2023
At ’90s Con, Doherty appeared at a “Beverly Hills, 90210” panel with some of her former cast members and told fans she was still struggling in her cancer battle.
“I have a fight for my life, that I deal with every day,” Doherty said. “I think I am really great.”
November 2023
“I don’t want to die,” Doherty told People in Nov. 2023. “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not — I’m not done.”
She also said it’s “insane” there’s still no cure for cancer.
December 2023
Doherty said on her podcast in Dec. 2023 that she thought she was going to die early on in her cancer battle.
“When I dropped down to 92 pounds from chemo and was incredibly dehydrated, I had to still get out of bed,” she recalled. “My husband at the time [was] sort of begging me to keep going, and my mom [was] literally trying to pick me up out of bed and get me to the doctor. … At that point in time, I thought that I wouldn’t survive it.”
The actress added that undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments taught her her true purpose: “Help others going through what I was going through and … possibly speed up cancer research [and] possibly get more money behind it.”
January 2024
Six months before her death, Doherty said on her podcast she was hoping to “squeeze out another three to five years.”
“There’s going to be a lot more options that will give [us] another five years,” she said. “Then in those five years, there’s a whole other group of options, and eventually there’s going to be a cure.”
Later that month, Doherty shared a “miracle” health update.
“I’m not gonna say what it is, I’m on a new cancer infusion, and after four treatments, we didn’t really see a difference and everybody wanted me to switch, and I just kinda was like, ‘We’re gonna keep going with this and see,’ ” she shared on the podcast. “And yeah, after the sixth or seventh treatment, we really saw it breaking down the blood-brain barrier.”
“For me, that happens to be a miracle right now,” the actress added. “That I sort of rolled the dice and said, ‘Let’s keep going.’”
Also in Jan. 2024, Doherty revealed on her podcast that she wanted her loved ones to distribute her ashes “in a healthy mixture.”
“I want [my remains] to be mixed with my dog, and I want it to be mixed with my dad. I do not want to be buried and not cremated,” she said at the time. She also suggested scattering her and her father’s ashes in Malibu, Calif., where they spent “precious time” together or using her remains to “grow them into a tree.”
Doherty said she wanted her funeral to be small.
“There’s a lot of people that I think would show up that I don’t want there. I don’t want them there because their reasons for showing up aren’t necessarily the best reasons, like, they don’t really like me and, you know, they have their reasons and good for them, but they don’t actually really like me enough to show up to my funeral,” she explained.
“[They’ll show up] because it’s the politically correct thing to do, and they don’t want to look bad, so I kinda want to take the pressure off them and I want my funeral to be like a love fest,” she went on. “I don’t want people to be crying or people to privately be like, ‘Thank God that bitch is dead now.’”
April 2024
Three months before her death, Doherty said on her podcast that she was selling her belongings so her mom wouldn’t have to deal with them after her death.
“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,” she said. “I don’t want her to have a bunch of stuff to deal with. I don’t want her to have four storage units filled with furniture because I have a furniture obsession.”
Doherty said she initially felt like she was “throwing in the towel” by selling her belongings, but decided to use the money to enjoy the time she had left with her loved ones.
“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.”
