Sarah Beeny vs Cancer

In August 2022 Mum, property expert and broadcaster Sarah Beeny was diagnosed with breast cancer, almost exactly 40 years after her mother died of the same disease when Sarah was just ten years old. In this deeply personal authored documentary Sarah explores the past, present and future of breast cancer treatment in the UK, with filming starting on her very first day of treatment just three weeks after her initial diagnosis. Heartfelt video diary ensures the highs and lows of this challenging period of Sarah's life are captured when the cameras are not around. But it's not only Sarah's story that is told. By capturing interviews with her husband Graham Swift and their four children, Billy (18),Charlie (16),Raffey (14) and Laurie (12),throughout the eight-month period, it offers a perspective of what the whole family go through when a family member is undergoing treatment for cancer. On returning home from her first chemo appointment, Sarah decides that she isn't going to wait for her hair to fall out, she's going to beat the chemo to it and chop it all off. She enlists the boys in a plan to carefully tie her hair into bunches and cut each off to enable it to be donated to the Little Princess Trust who make free wigs for children who have lost their own hair through cancer. It's a joyous moment as Sarah feels empowered - even if Graham does insist on signing tunes from Les Miserables. Later Sarah heads to an NHS Hair Loss Clinic to find out what they can offer that might help her feel herself whilst going through chemo - especially as Sarah is intent on keeping working throughout. Sarah decides that now she has breast cancer herself, she wants to learn more about what her mother went through 40 years previously. Sarah embarks on a mission to see whether she can get hold of her mother's medical notes and to her surprise, a paper copy still exists in the archives of her late mother's local hospital. It's a poignant moment for Sarah when she receives a copy and can see not only the hard facts, but also letters written between doctors about her mother. In order to better understand how breast cancer treatment has changed in the past forty years, Sarah heads to the research rooms at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. She meets Professor Michael Baum, a surgeon now in his eighties who was a specialist in breast cancer care when Sarah's mother was undergoing treatment. Back in Somerset, we jump back to 'the present' and follow Sarah as she undergoes a course of chemotherapy every three weeks for most of the autumn and winter. We explore what it's like to work in the days after treatment and video diary entries capture some of the most difficult moments. But soon it's Christmas and Sarah is determined that this Christmas won't be remembered as the cancer Christmas, they're going to have a great time come what may. In her 'side project' to better understand how breast cancer care is changing, Sarah has explored the past through her mother's notes, the present through her own treatment, and now moves on to look at what the future might hold. She meets the inventor Professor Zoltan Takats at Imperial College London to see a demonstration of the iKnife, a machine that is at the cutting edge of breast cancer surgery. They discuss what cancer treatment might look like in the future. With the work of so many cancer researchers creating incredible breakthroughs, will the gut wrenching fear of 'the c word' be confined to history? With chemotherapy over, Sarah is moving onto the final phase of her treatment, the surgery. Having undergone genetic testing, Sarah has found out that she has a gene called PALB2 which, along with a variety of other factors, means that she is at a great risk of getting breast cancer in the other, currently cancer free breast. As such, Sarah opts for of a double mastectomy, meaning both breasts will be removed and replaced with implants. We follow her to the door of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London when she undergoes her surgery. A month later in March 2023, she is on the road to recovery and we hear Sarah and her family's thoughts about what the last eight months have been like. Whilst it's not a full 'all clear' and Sarah will be on drugs for many years to come, she considers this the end point in her treatment and is determined to draw a line under a difficult eight months. Sarah is hopeful as she believes breast cancer treatment is getting better every day and the future is bright.