Nicola Roberts, Member of Pop Group Girls Aloud, Thanks Therapy for Where She is Now After Death of Bandmate, Sarah Harding

"I think there is such a taboo around (therapy) that people almost feel like they've failed or they weren't strong enough to figure out a situation by themselves," Roberts says.

"But if you're feeling like you can't see the wood from the trees or light at the end of the tunnel, it's imperative to reach out because you can't always do it alone," she adds.

"It's about saying this is what is happening to me, it's not my fault, but my happiness matters and I'm going to put my hand up and say I need some help."

Sarah Harding's Cancer Death

Last year, at the age of 39, Harding passed away after a hard-fought battle with metastatic breast cancer; her passing was something that affected the world, and especially Girls Aloud members, including Roberts.

Harding was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and shared the news of her metastatic breast cancer diagnosis a few months later in August. Since the cancer had spread, doctors had told Harding that she would not make it to Christmas that year, but she fought to hang on as long as she could.

"Earlier this year I was diagnosed with breast cancer and a couple of weeks ago I received the devastating news that the cancer has advanced to other parts of my body," Harding said of her health at the time. "I'm undergoing weekly chemotherapy sessions and I am fighting as hard as I can."

She lived with her cancer for a whole year, beating the doctor's prediction by eight months.

Stage 4, or metastatic, cancers have spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body. When breast cancer spreads, it most commonly goes to the bones, liver and lungs. It may also spread to the brain or other organs. It is unclear where in Harding's body her cancer had spread.

Aggressive Breast Cancer in Young Women

Harding was relatively young when she died just 39 years old. Women do not typically begin to undergo regular mammograms checking for breast cancer until they turn 40. Dr. Ann Partridge, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, tells SurvivorNet that about 11,000 women aged 40 and younger are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the United States.

About 260,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually in the country, so 11,000 is a small percentage of women. But in some ways, Dr. Partridge says, a diagnosis for a younger woman can often be even more devastating because the cancer is likely to be a more aggressive form of the disease, and also at an advanced stage, because screening for younger women is not standard.

How Nicola Roberts Coped With Her Friend's Death Through Therapy

In an interview with Metro last year, Nicola Roberts says her friend's death made her realize "how fragile life is."

"We can make all the plans in the world but it leaves you feeling concerned (that) anything can happen at any given moment," she tells Metro. "But it's important to not become mentally swallowed up in those thought processes because that's not healthy either."

'Therapy Saved My Life': After Losing a Loved One, Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Through the new NHS mental health campaign, Roberts serves as an advocate for how therapy can be extremely helpful during the grieving process, just as many in the SurvivorNet community have told us.

Camila Legaspi, in a previous interview with SurvivorNet, shares her own advice about dealing with grief after her mother died of breast cancer. For her, like Nicola Roberts, therapy made all the difference.

"Therapy saved my life," Legaspi says. "I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life. Because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on, going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings."

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.