Supermodel Elle Macpherson announced she is in remission for breast cancer after keeping her diagnosis quiet for seven years.
Macpherson spoke to Australian Women’s Weekly about when she found out she had cancer, telling the publication, “It was a shock, it was unexpected, it was confusing, it was daunting in so many ways.”
She initially had a lumpectomy and doctors called her after the procedure to tell her that she had HER2 positive estrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma. It wasn’t the first time she had a chance of cancer. She had found a benign lump in her breast in 2013, People magazine reported.
Macpherson was advised to have a mastectomy and chemotherapy, but she declined to use chemo to fight cancer, instead using a “holistic approach” that didn’t use chemotherapy or other pharmaceuticals.
“I realized I was going to need my own truth, my belief system to support me through it. And that’s what I did,” she told Australian Women’s Weekly. “So, it was a wonderful exercise in being true to myself, trusting myself and trusting the nature of my body and the course of action that I had chosen.”
She didn’t forgo medical help completely. She said she spoke to 32 doctors and other experts on her plan to treat the cancer her way.
Macpherson used her primary doctor to use various therapies and lifestyle changes to “heal the whole person,” the publication said. It is a process that won’t work for everyone and she admits that.
“I came to the understanding that there was no sure thing and absolutely no guarantees. There was no ‘right’ way, just the right way for me.
“I chose an holistic approach. Saying no to standard medical solutions was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But saying no to my own inner sense would have been even harder,” she wrote in her new book, “Elle,” which according to Australian Women’s Weekly “is not an autobiography, rather a series of wisdoms she has learnt through chapters of her most remarkable 60 years.”
“Elle: Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself” will be published on Nov. 19 and can be preordered here.
©2024 Cox Media Group
