Cancer Loss
- Chef Nigella Lawson celebrated her 60th birthday this year.
- Lawson lost her first husband to throat cancer when he was 47, her sister to breast cancer at 32, and her mom died of liver cancer when she was 48.
- When coping with loss, therapy and support groups can be helpful.
In a recent interview, the culinary wiz said, “To be completely honest, I've never been able to take for granted that I'd be alive by this age. My mother died at 48 and my sister at 32. And then John [Diamond, her late husband] at 47. So, even if I were the sort of person who planned ahead, I don't think I would have seen myself here… I kind of think you can't do anything about it [aging] so why complain?”
Read MoreJohn Diamond’s Throat Cancer
Lawson’s first husband, English journalist John Diamond, was a writer for the UK newspaper The Times when he met Lawson.
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Diamond wrote a column for The Times and was also a BBC presenter. He and Lawson married in 1992, and had two kids together; he passed away on March 2, 2001 after losing his battle with throat cancer at just 47 years old.
The majority of throat cancer cases are caused by HPV. Dr. Ted Teknos, a head and neck cancer specialist at UH Cleveland Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet that “From the 1980s to the 2010s, the rate of HPV-related head and neck cancers has gone up by 300 percent. HPV 16 has been shown to cause 92 percent of head and neck cancers," Teknos said. "It's a sexually transmitted disease. And it's an epidemic in the United States.”
Majority of Throat Cancer Diagnoses Are Caused by HPV Here's What You Need to Know
"The average person with HPV-related throat cancer tends to be a male in his 40s or 50s, who was never a smoker or just a very light tobacco user," Dr. Jessica Geiger tells SurvivorNet.
Nigella’s Mom’s Liver Cancer Battle
Before she lost her first husband Diamond to cancer, Lawson had already suffered cancer-related loss in her family. Her mom passed away in 1993, at age 48, from liver cancer. (And Lawson lost her sister to breast cancer as well, when her sister was only 32.)
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), approximately 42,810 new cases of liver cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2020, and 30,000 people will die of this cancer each year. Liver cancer affects men more frequently than it does women.
Following a cancer-related loss of a parent or spouse, the grief you experience can be immeasurable. Many people find therapy, support groups, and supportive relationships to be the best way to move through grief, and cope with the loss of a loved one.
"Therapy Saved My Life": After Losing A Loved One, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help
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