One year since she opened up to her devoted fans about her cancer journey, the beloved Bollywood film star Sonali Bendre is thanking her fans for being “instrumental” when they stood by her during her ordeal.
Beloved Indian film star Sonali Bendre
In an emotional post on Instagram, Bendre, 44, quoted the Indian poet Rupi Kaur, writing “Stay strong through your pain, grow flowers from it. You have helped me grow flowers out of mine, so bloom beautifully, dangerously, loudly. Bloom softly. However you need to just bloom.”
Later in the post, Bendre added: “It’s been a year. I can’t tell you how instrumental you all have been. Thank you for helping me get through this and for helping me #SwitchOnTheSunshine.”Sonali Bendre was open about losing her hair during cancer treatment.
She also employed the hashtags “#Gratitude #BeFearless #OneDayAtATime” and “#MyNewNormal”.
Bendre first announced that she was diagnosed with cancer in July of 2018 with an Instagram post. "Sometimes, when you least expect it, life throws you a curveball. I have recently been diagnosed with a high grade cancer that has metastasized, which we frankly did not see coming," she wrote at the time. "A niggling pain led to some tests, which led to this unexpected diagnosis. My family and close friends have rallied around me, providing the best support system that anyone can ask for. I am very blessed and thankful for each of them."
Bendre has not specified with what manner of cancer she has been afflicted. She traveled to New York to be treated for her cancer, and while there she held sessions of her book club online for her fans in India. The club focuses on New Age books.
Since her bold disclosure, Bendre documented many milestones in her cancer journey on social media including losing her hair, struggling with treatment, and all the ways cancer has changed her perspective on life.
This spring, Bendre spoke at the a Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations conference about the importance of knowing your risk. "Early detection is most important," Bendre said. "Right now, the disease is less scary … the treatment is actually more frightening and painful. If it were detected early, the cost of treatment would have been less. It would also have been [less] painful treatment."
She also mentioned how important it is to be familiar with your family history, adding that she had relatives with cancer, but wasn't aware of it or that she could be at risk as well. "I wish I knew about it," she said. "I wouldn't have thought this would happen to me … I felt if this was so prevalent, why did I not know about it?" Bendre called on medical professionals and hospitals to work to make people aware about things like family risk and keeping up with recommended screenings.
Bendre may not have been specific about what type of cancer she is battling, but the fact that she has been so open about the ups and downs of her journey is really encouraging to people who have been through the same thing. And the SurvivorNet family is 100% behind her message of raising awareness. We recently spoke to Genetic Counselor Rachel Webster, who works with patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and she said families should absolutely be sharing their health histories.
"If someone in your family is found to have a predisposition to cancer … the first step is to start testing relatives most closely related to you," Webster told SurvivorNet during a discussion on genetic testing (she was not discussing Sonali Bendre). "Those relatives might be brothers, sisters, parents, children … those first degree relatives are the ones that are at the highest probability of having that same genetic predisposition. Genetic counselors have specialized training in order to figure out what genetic testing might be the most useful for you and your family."
Bendre is married to Indian film director Goldie Behl and the couple have a teenage son.
