Springwatch star Michaela Strachan is set to grace our screens in Dancing On Ice, after what has been “relentless” year filled with personal tragedy. Discussing her experience on the On The Marie Curie Couch podcast, the 58-year-old presenter described the previous year as “really sad.”
She recounted the losses within her close circle, beginning with the death of her sister-in-law from cancer at the start of the year. “There was a lot of loss in my close circle of family and friends, starting off at the beginning of the year with the passing of my sister-in-law who died of cancer… she suffered for three years and eventually passed in January,” Michaela shared.
The presenter went on to explain how her partner Nick Chevallier’s previous wife had also succumbed to cancer, which made his sister’s passing particularly poignant. Around the same time, Nick’s best friend died of a heart attack, adding to the series of unfortunate events.
The 58-year-old presenter is set to take part in Dancing On Ice
(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Michaela then spoke of another harrowing incident where the son of one of her close friends died at just 35 years old. She described it as “heartbreakingly sad to watch a mother go through that kind of loss”.
Reflecting on her friend’s vibrant personality, Michaela said: “But that light will never be as bright again because she’s lost a child. And knowing how to help and be there for that friend was very difficult.”
However, the loss that hit closest to home for Michaela was that of her dear friend Lucy, who had battled the same kind of breast cancer that Michaela had been treated for. “She had a very similar breast cancer to myself,” she revealed.
Michaela says that her breast cancer experience ‘made her appreciate life more’
(Image: BBC/Jo Charlesworth)
“She had a very similar diagnosis to myself and they said ‘We’ve caught it early. It’s a small bit of cancer in one breast. We ‘We’ll do a mastectomy. We’ll put you on Tamoxifen. You’ll be fine.’
“Which is exactly the same as I had,” Michaela said. “She had a very similar diagnosis to myself and they said ‘We’ve caught it early. It’s a small bit of cancer in one breast. We’ll do a mastectomy. We’ll put you on Tamoxifen.You’ll be fine’.”
And here I am 10 years later and I am fine. My friend wasn’t so lucky and hers came back and it spread and we lost her last year.
“She continued: “And so I walked that journey with my friend, Lucy. And so that hit me really hard. Losing Lucy hit me hard.”
Michaela had endured her own battle with cancer in 2014
(Image: BBC/Jo Charlesworth)
Michaela added that having experienced cancer herself, she felt she was able to “get it right,’ when it came to supporting her friend Lucy.
The Springwatch presenter recalled: “She was given three months to a year and she lived over a year. So she exceeded the length that she was given.
And knowing how to be with her and with her family was really difficult, very difficult. But with her, I felt I got it right.”