News Anchor, 67, Fighting Advanced Breast Cancer Goes On Celebrity Big Brother To Help The World Understand What Women Endure

Recounting how she previously would shut down the idea, she said her mind changed when she realized she could go on the show and offer others insight into how she’s living while battling a disease.

She recalled her daughter saying, “Mom, while you’re going through your cancer shenanigans, you have become passionate about the language around it, the lack of joined up services, the way the press reports it, the misinformation. You’re doing it on Instagram, you’re supporting people on social media, you’re shouting into this void.

Goddard continued, “My daughter said, ‘you’ve got all of these stuff that you’re passionate about … this is your opportunity for people to see what you’re talking about, not just the words,’ to actually see what 3.4 million people in the U.K. alone are living with cancer, six million people are living with a chronic illness.”

She explained further, “All those millions of people, who could benefit from better joined up services, people using better language around then, all of those things … so, I said yes.”

When asked whether she had “something like a bucket list,” Goddard immediately insisted “no,” insisting, “hate it … why would anybody have a bucket list?”

She said she “always” lived her live to the fullest, even prior to her cancer diagnosis, noting, “I’ve always been like that, but this [cancer] pushes me further.”

Goddard, who entered the Big Brother House on April 7, 2025, and has since been voted out, also said on the show she wanted to be in the house to show other patients like herself they don’t need to be “scared of living.”

She said, according to the Independent, “Being on Big Brother would show people how you can live successfully with cancer and not be so scared of dying that you become scared of living. So that’s why I’m doing it.”

“You talk to people and you say you have stage four metastatic cancer. But there’s stage four and there’s stage four. You can have a few cells and you’re stage four. You can have cancer in your brain, your heart, you know, God forbid, and you’re stage four. So people hear metastatic and they don’t think about the fact that there are people with metastatic breast cancer being treated by my oncologist who have been around for twenty years. So it’s a huge thing.

Goddard added, “But people hear metastatic and it’s terminal, which isn’t used in the medical world, it’s life limiting. You’re written off and there’s just pity towards you.

“Anyone going through it, and the Princess of Wales said it perfectly, you’re living with uncertainty, but all you get is pity. I can categorically tell you there are lots of people in lots of industries who are living with cancer who’ve never said a word for that reason.

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Meanwhile, around the time Goddard entered the Celebrity Big Brother house, she said in another interview, as per the Mirror, “My oncologist is my biggest cheerleader and is working with the Big Brother team. I’ve got a special therapist who’s happy to work with the medic on the show.

‘My palliative care team, and when I say that word, everybody screams and runs away, but it’s symptom treatment, is working with the team here too. And then when it comes to my treatment, I had one infusion on Monday, so I’ve got to jump on a plane and go straight back to have the next one as soon as the show is over. I’ve got a bag full of meds that I normally have which will be with me in the house.”

Trisha Goddard’s Diagnosis

Goddard was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. She then became disease-free.

But about three years ago, she learned that her cancer had returned, unfortunately to her bones, specifically, her right hip, which made the diagnosis metastatic, or stage 4, an incurable but manageable cancer, thanks to advancements in treatment.

Goddard said she started sustaining injuries while exercising at an increasing rate so that it caught her attention. Then, one day, she fell in her home, assuming she had possibly broken or fractured something on her leg. After undergoing tests and imaging scans, her doctor discovered something alarming: cancer cells in her hip.

It was then she learned the newly discovered cancer was a recurrence of the breast cancer she had dealt with many years earlier, except this time, it was in stage four.

RELATED: How a Breast Cancer Diagnosis Impacts the Marriages of African American Women; Plus, Tips for Coping

“It’s not going to go away,” she explained in an interview with HELLO! last year. “And with that knowledge comes grief and fear. But I must keep enjoying what I have always enjoyed.”

The decision to finally share her diagnosis partly happened to free her from holding all of that information inside — because it was getting to be too much. “I can’t lie; I can’t keep making up stories. It gets to a stage, after a year and a half, when keeping a secret becomes more of a burden than anything else.”

“I’m nervous,” she added. “But it needed to be done.”

RELATED: I Can’t Hide My Cancer Anymore’ Says Veteran News Anchor Trisha Goddard, Sharing Breast Cancer Returned After 16 Years

Goddard was treated with several weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. She’s now focusing her efforts on “life-pro-longing care.”

“When you go to the doctors in the (United) States, there’s a choice of three little boxes you tick for treatment of stage 4 cancer. One is cure, one is life-prolonging, and one is palliative. There’s that awful feeling when you’re sitting there thinking: ‘Which one?’ and mine is life-prolonging,” Goddard explained.

Treating Metastatic Breast Cancer

With metastatic breast cancer, the primary goal of treatment is to control its spread. SurvivorNet offers information about what those options are from targeted therapies to chemotherapy and when these various treatment options can be used. We also provide information on new, exciting research that is currently being tested in clinical trials and information about when recently approved drugs, like immunotherapies, can be used.

For help finding a clinical trial that may be right for you or a loved one, try our easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder.

While there have been many developments in recent years when it comes to treating late-stage breast cancer, which therapies can be used will depend on the characteristics of the patient’s cancer.

What are the Treatment Options for Late-Stage Breast Cancer?

Late-stage breast cancer is not one disease, but many different diseases so the options available to different patients vary a great deal. Which treatment doctors recommend will depend on several factors like a woman’s overall health, genetics, the biology of the tumor, and more.

Treatment for late-stage breast cancer can include a combination of:

• Chemotherapy: Oral or IV medications that are toxic to tumor cells
• Hormonal therapies: Drugs that lower estrogen levels or block estrogen receptors from allowing the cancer cells to grow
  Targeted therapies: Drugs that target your tumor’s specific gene mutations
• Immunotherapy: Medications that stimulate your immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells
• Radiation: The use of high-energy rays to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors
• Surgery: To remove a cancerous tumor or lymph nodes (uncommon with stage IV; more common in stages I, II, and III)
• Clinical trials: Studies of new medications, treatments, and other therapies offer hope for better outcomes

Treating Her2-positive Metastatic Breast Cancer

Can Metastatic Breast Cancer be Prevented?

While there’s no sure way to prevent metastatic breast cancer, researchers are working diligently to find ways you can prevent the first (or primary) breast cancer from returning or metastasizing.

Dr. Kenneth D. Miller, medical oncologist at the Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, recommended, in an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, making lifestyle adjustments to reduce risk factors and improve cancer survivorship, including:

• Eat a low-fat diet: Women who eat a low-fat diet tend to have lower levels of estrogen in their blood, which could help reduce risk.
• Choose a colorful diet: Women who eat a varied diet of fruits and vegetables may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer.
• Exercise for two or more hours weekly: Studies suggest that physical activity can lower breast cancer recurrence.
• Maintain a healthy body weight: Women who are overweight after treatment for breast cancer may be at higher risk of recurrence
• Limit alcohol intake: Heavy alcohol consumption has been linked to an increased risk of recurrence.

Maintaining Quality of Life With Metastatic Breast Cancer

“Metastatic breast cancer is a treatable disease,” explains Dr. Miller. “Fortunately, we have so many new treatments for women with recurrent breast cancer and for many women who look at this as a chronic disease that they can live with “often for many years.”

While treatment for metastatic breast cancer is not curative, it can improve your quality of life. You and your doctor will work together to develop a treatment plan that’s right for you.

“Quality of life typically involves many things including treating symptoms effectively and modifying lifestyle to allow time for treatment and to accommodate to living with a chronic disease. A positive attitude doesn’t cure cancer but also contributes to living well with cancer. Faith, spirituality, intimate relationships, friends, and families help as well.”

RELATED: Promising Targeted Therapy, Padcev, Falls Short of Meeting Goals for Advanced Breast Cancer — But May Still Have a Future Treating the Disease

In some cases, you may need more aggressive therapies that can be lifesaving. Finding the right combination of treatments for your breast cancer and your body may take some time. Be patient and work with your doctor to arrive at the right treatment plan.

Remember, when you are fighting metastatic breast cancer, it can be hard to remember the good in life. No matter what treatments you are undergoing, it’s important to maintain a support system around you and an optimistic outlook.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and unable to go on, seek help. And talk to your physician. Your physician can recommend support groups or other professionals that can help make your journey easier.

Meanwhile, studies of new treatment options are called clinical trials, and they are an essential part of medicine for two reasons: Clinical trials help doctors better understand cancer and discover more effective treatment methods—and they also allow patients to try a treatment before it’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which can be life-changing.

WATCH: Clinical Trials Help Find New Treatment Options

Dr. Beth Karlan is a gynecologic oncologist at UCLA Health. She says the goal with clinical trials is to advance cancer research to a point where the disease becomes akin to diabetes, where it becomes a manageable condition.

“Clinical trials hopefully can benefit you, but is also providing very, very vital information to the whole scientific community about the effectiveness of these treatments,” Dr. Karlan said. “They can be lifesaving. In the last few years, we’ve seen many children and adults who have participated in trials and had miraculous results.”

Tips On Reducing Chance of Breast Cancer Recurrence

As triumphant as breast cancer survivors can feel after learning they are cancer free, many worry about recurrence.

While the chance of recurrence varies based on the biology of the tumor, the stage it was when diagnosed and the treatment received, according to the Susan G. Komen organization, “Most people diagnosed with breast cancer will never have a recurrence.”

Dr. Erica Mayer, a breast cancer medical oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, previously told SurvivorNet, “Once a patient has finished his or her active therapy for breast cancer, we will often refer to that time as breast cancer survivorship.

RELATED: To Reconstruct or Not: After Mastectomy, Two Women Take Very Different Paths

“This is a time when patients are still being actively monitored by their treatment team, not only to ensure that they remain healthy and cancer-free in the years ahead, but also making sure that they have recovered from any side effects of their initial treatment, and that they are pursuing healthy behaviors for example, getting regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, and keeping up with all their other routine medical care.”

But recurrence does happen, so it’s important to do everything you can to reduce your risk.

Here are some tips:

1. Follow Treatment Guidelines

“The best way to reduce your risk of recurrence with breast cancer is to follow treatment guidelines and complete the course of treatment that’s given,” says Dr. Port, who sat down with SurvivorNet and offered the following advice.

For example, she says many women have breast cancer that’s hormonally driven, and there are treatments that they give, such as pills like Tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors, to reduce the risk of these hormonally-driven cancers coming back. The issue is that the course of treatment may call for patients to take the pills for 5-10 years. While some have no side effects, others may experience a host of unpleasant side effects, even to the point where they’re severely debilitated and have no quality of life on these medications.

“So the challenge is to work with every individual person to make sure we give her the best chance of getting through these treatments and enjoying the benefits of these treatments, which is the lowest rate of cancer coming back,” Port says.

2. Maintain a Healthy Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight may also reduce the risk.

“We know that obesity or being overweight can increase the risk of cancer recurrence in breast cancer,” Port says. “And so I say, maintaining a healthy body weight, whatever that is for the individual… You know, we talk a lot about healthy body weight, and there’s a very big range of this, but there are certain numbers beyond which it does affect one’s health. So we try to keep people within a range of a healthy body weight.”

3. Limit Alcohol

Port says the other lifestyle factor that may increase one’s risk of breast cancer recurrence is heavy alcohol intake.

“We say alcohol in moderation is probably fine, which is defined as three to five drinks a week,” Port told SurvivorNet. “More than that can also potentially increase the risk of recurrence. So the big lifestyle factors are healthy body weight and moderate alcohol intake.”

4. Eat a Healthy Diet

She says there’s no one dietary element that you can eat or consume to give you an edge against breast cancer recurrence. It’s not eating more broccoli or eating more blueberries or becoming a vegetarian. She says the fact that sugar feeds cancer is a big myth too. However, everything you eat does contribute to your overall health.

RELATED: Follow That Fire: Life After Cancer Will be Different, That Doesn’t Have to be a Bad Thing

“These things are all really helpful in maintaining an overall healthy well-balanced diet and also to maintain healthy body weight. We know that diets that are heavy in sugar content are also usually unhealthy and can lead to weight issues. So it all really funnels back to maintaining a healthy body weight when it comes to lifestyle factors.”

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Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

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