25 April 2023 , 14:23
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Charlene White has urged people to get tested for bowel cancer after her mum's own heartbreaking death.
The Loose Women star was just a young woman when she lost her mother Dorrett to cancer. Her mum was just 47 when she passed away, and was diagnosed a few years prior to that, the same age that Charlene is at now, which leaves her feeling "weird".
Charlene is supporting Lorraine's No Butts campaign, which wants to reduce the stigma surrounding talking about bowels and bowel cancer, which they have continued in honour of Dame Deborah James, who passed away from bowel cancer.
Charlene lost her mum Dorrett as a young girl (ITV)Speaking on Lorraine today, she said: "It feels weird to know that I'm the same age as she was when she found out. I was 16 and my younger brother was only three when she was diagnosed and she died before she hit 50.
"And I am now at that sweet spot from when she was diagnosed when she was 43, which is what I am now or will be this year, and she died when she was 47. Part of the reason my mum didn't go to that appointment was because she got caught up with parenting. If she went for that early blood test it could of saved her life."
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Charlene explained how difficult it was for her whole family growing up, but they never knew anything different.
She spoke openly about her mum's heartbreaking death (ITV)She previously shared: "People find it really bizarre when I say, '[I had] a mum that was in hospital all the time, I mean, I was doing my homework sitting on the bed in Greenwich hospital, [that] was our normal and so we didn't know any different.
"Me having to take my brother to primary school before I went to school every morning was my normal, because my mum would be having chemo and my dad had to go to work, so that's all we ever knew during that period in our life. So I don't know what it's like to have a normal childhood in your late teens, early twenties, I don't know."
She added: "But what I do know is that I don't want other families to have to go through that and lose a parent as a result of not spotting the signs and not going to their GP. For whatever reason, some people get really embarrassed talking about their bowel movements. Talking about poo people get really embarrassed about it but the reality is, everybody does it."