Andrea Swifts Cancer Journey
- As singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, 34, is set to finish up her performances at London’s Wembley Stadium, we, and her fans, can’t help but notice how incredibly supportive her parents have been toward her—and especially her mom, Andrew Swift, who is a two-time breast cancer survivor following both a 2015 and 2019 diagnosis.
- Additionally, in January 2020, the “Bad Blood” singer revealed her mother was battling a brain tumor that was found amid chemotherapy treatments.
- Andrea Swift, 66, and her 72-year-old husband Scott Kingsley Swift, were praised by fans this weekend after giving out friendship bracelets to fans at Wembley Stadium in London.
- Facing cancer as a parent can be a challenging task. But having children who depend on you can also provide another reason to fight the disease with everything you’ve got.
After a recent show, her 66-year-old mom Andrea Swift and 72-year-old dad Scott Kingsley Swift, were praised by a fan as “lovely, down-to-earth” people after they were seen giving out friendship bracelets as gifts to Swifties in the audience during her recent shows at Wembley.
Read MoreAndrea was seen, donning sunglasses and black dress, with her hair down, interacting with dozens of fans alongside her husband.
Fans commented on the video, “What lovely, down-to-earth people!” and “Taylor joys and happiness is to see her parents always together and their amazing support.”
While a third wrote, “The bodygurds are amazing to protect mama SWIFT.”
Other footage, shared on TikTok, showed her parents in the crowd after she sang “Champaign Problems,” which prompted a standing ovation.
Swift is heard telling the audience, “I guarantee my parents were just recording that on their phones.
“So anytime I’m having a very sad or bad day from now on, not only will I play the video in my mind, but I’m gonna revisit that moment a lot. Thank you so much for doing that for us.”
@jaderezendec safe to say all of us got emotional #londontstheerastour #theerastour #swifttok #taylorswift #swiftie
Another Swiftie commented on the post, “Imagine standing in a stadium of 90 thousand people cheering for your daughter. That has to be insanely overwhelming in the best way possible.”
Meanwhile, seeing Swift’s parents making such an impact on the concertgoers experiences shows us just how far Andrea has come after being diagnosed with cancer twice.
We’re delighted to see Andrea, who is a two-time breast cancer survivor, enjoying life and being by her daughter’s side through some major life accomplishments, like becoming the first solo artist to play at Wembley Stadium eight times in a one tour.
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Andrea Swift’s Battles with Cancer
Andrea Swift is a two-time cancer survivor following her first breast cancer diagnosis in 2015 and then again in 2019. She also dealt with a brain tumor doctors discovered while she was undergoing chemotherapy.
After sharing her mom’s diagnosis on social media with her fans, Taylor noted that her mom “may not be at as many shows” to focus on her cancer treatment, entertainment media outlet Distractify reports.
“The symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before. So it’s just been a really hard time for us as a family,” Taylor Swift told Variety in an earlier interview.
The specifics about Andrea’s breast cancer and the status of her ongoing treatment remain unknown, but one thing is for sure — she’s not letting her previous cancer diagnoses prevent her from taking part in their daughter’s eventful life.
Although the “Anti-Hero” singer hasn’t revealed explicit details about her mom’s diagnosis, it’s important to understand that metastatic breast cancer often presents as a recurrence of a prior early-stage breast cancer, although it can be a new diagnosis.
Back in 2015, the year Andrea was first diagnosed with breast cancer, Taylor’s mom presented her daughter with The Milestone Award at The Academy of Country Music Awards.
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“I’ve watched this milestone artist from the time she was a tangled hair little girl growing up on our farm, full of imagination and creativity,” Andrea told the crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in what was her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis. “And ever since then, her favorite thing in the world to do has been to write a song, tell a story, play a guitar, or a piano,” Andrea said. “And I’ve seen those things carry her through every emotion, every experience in her life. Good or bad.”
She continued, “Every once in a while, her dad or I find ourselves to be the subject of those songs. Sometimes we’re merely the inspiration. Like the time she was 17 years old and her dad and I strongly disapproved of a young man, and rightfully so. But she was mad, she was real mad, and she went to her room and she closed the door. She came out about an hour later with a song called ‘Love Story.’”
RELATED: Taylor Swift Honors Her Parents in Amazing Speech as Her Mom Deals with Cancer Recurrence
Taylor’s parents have been incredibly influential in her success and she doesn’t shy away from giving her mom credit whenever possible. During her mom’s breast cancer battle, Taylor wrote a song dedicated to her mom called “The Best Day.” The lyrics include the notable line, “…And I love you for giving me your eyes. Staying back and watching me shine…”
Another song dedicated to Andrea includes, “Soon You’ll Get Better.”
Taylor told a crowd at the Global Citizen’s “One World, Together at Home” concert in 2020, “That’s a song I don’t know if I’ll ever play it live. It’s just really difficult for me. It was hard to write. It’s hard to sing. It’s hard to listen to for me,” CNN reported.
Battling Cancer as a Parent
Remember, opening up about cancer diagnosis with children can be really difficult task. It’s important to be honest with them and you want them to be prepared for what might happen, but at the same time you want to protect them, and be as gentle as possible.
John Duberstein, who lost his wife Nina to cancer, explains that he and his wife tried to take a progressive approach and be as open with their kids as possible. But as honest as they were, they ran into some issues with their kids understanding the disease. When Nina started to look healthier, for example, the kids assumed she was getting better, but that wasn’t the case.
Talking to Kids About Cancer: Be Open as Much as You Can
“It was a real eye-opening moment for two people who felt like they were dealing really head-on with this stuff, talking to the kids,” Duberstein told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.
“So I think it’s important to be open with the kids as much as you can, as much as you feel like they can handle. But it’s also important to revisit it and not make assumptions. At the end of the night, what Nina had to tell them was, ‘I’m not ever going to get better. My cancer is not ever going to go away,’ it was hard for them to hear even though they’d already been prepared.”
Meanwhile, breast cancer survivor Gina de Givenchy previously spoke with SurvivorNet about going through cancer treatment as the mother of a 12-year-old girl.
“I felt it was important to mask it because I really wanted her to know that I was going to be OK. I didn’t want her to see me weak and sickly,” she said. “When it comes to your kids, I think you always want to sort of protect them.”
Telling Your Kids You Have Cancer ‘When it Comes to Your Kids, You Want to Protect Them’
The pressures of parenthood can be daunting during a cancer journey, but having little ones that depend on you can also provide another source of motivation to fight for your life.
Jovannie Lorenzo also knows this to be true. When she was diagnosed with colon cancer at 32, she felt an immense amount of fear because she was a single parent of her three kids. Going into her cancer battle, Lorenzo knew she would do everything in her power to be around to raise them.
Facing a Cancer Diagnosis as a Single Parent: “I Knew I Had to Fight for My Life”
“I knew that I had to do everything possible to be here for my children,” Lorenzo told SurvivorNet. “They are my saving grace. They are the reason I wake up every morning. They are the reason why I fight every single day and I make a choice to be positive, to be happy, and to move forward.”
Obviously, not every parent feels comfortable sharing so much about their diagnosis with their children. Some survivors have even told us that they were afraid to tell their family members, but as for Duberstein, de Givenchy, and Lorenzo, honesty was the best policy.
Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Marianna Strongin encourages people with sick parents “to talk about your feelings with your immediate family as well as your parents.” She’s previously talked about the importance of expressing your feelings in her advice column for SurvivorNet.
“Talking about difficult things does not cause more anxiety,” Dr. Strongin said. “It is NOT talking about the very thing that we are all afraid or worried about that causes our body to feel dysregulated (unable to manage emotional responses or keep them within an acceptable range of typical emotional reactions) and anxious.”
Specifically, with patients who may be scared to talk to their children about a diagnosis, Strongin said children can pick up on their emotions, so it may help to check in with yourself beforehand.
“Having these conversations may bring up deep emotions you may have stowed away. There is nothing wrong with showing our emotions to children as long as we can remain calm and give them a sense of safety,” Dr. Strongin said.
Power of Support
A cancer diagnosis can be extremely stressful. One way SurvivorNet experts encourage cancer patients to alleviate some of that stress by leaning on their support system.
A support system can be made up of loved ones like family and friends. It can also be comprised of strangers who have come together because of a shared cancer experience. Mental health professionals can also be critical parts of a support system.
WATCH: Sharing details about your cancer diagnosis.
“Some people don’t need to go outside of their family and friend’s circle. They feel like they have enough support there,” psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik told SurvivorNet.
“But for people who feel like they need a little bit more, it’s important to reach out to a mental health professional,” Dr. Plutchik added.
Dr. Plutchik also stressed it is important for people supporting cancer warriors to understand their emotions can vary day-to-day.
“People can have a range of emotions—they can include fear, anger—and these emotions tend to be fluid. They can recede and return based on where someone is in the process,” Dr. Plutchik said.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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