Sarah Harding: 'I won't see another Christmas'

Harding shot to fame in 2002 as a contestant on ITV's Popstars: The Rivals

Sarah Harding, who has breast cancer, has revealed doctors have told her she won't see another Christmas.

The former Girls Aloud singer announced last year she had the disease, which had spread to other parts of her body.

An extract from her memoir, printed in The Times, said: "In December my doctor told me that the upcoming Christmas would probably be my last."

She said she didn't want an exact prognosis, just "comfort" and to be "pain-free".

Harding said in her memoir, Hear Me Out, she is "trying to live and enjoy every second of my life, however long it might be".

"I am having a glass of wine or two during all this, because it helps me relax.

"I'm at a stage now where I don't know how many months I have left.

"Who knows, maybe I'll surprise everyone, but that's how I'm looking at things."

Harding also revealed she had sepsis while she was being treated for cancer in hospital.

She said she was put into an induced coma and placed on a ventilator.

"Even once I was off the ventilator, I couldn't speak properly," she said. "All I could do was make noises that sounded like a chimpanzee trying to communicate."

Harding told the public about her cancer diagnosis in August last year. Doing so was, she says, "scary" but "the right thing to do".

She told The Times that due to the pandemic she had put off going to the doctor when she first started having symptoms.

Now, she hopes that her story will encourage others to get themselves checked by a doctor if they have concerns.

She said she had been "inundated" with support since then, including from her former Girls Aloud bandmates, adding: "I'm grateful beyond words for that."

Harding shot to fame in 2002 as a contestant on Popstars: The Rivals - an ITV talent show which aimed to find both a new girl band and boy band.

She made it to the final and was voted into the group which became Girls Aloud, alongside Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Cheryl Cole (then Tweedy).

The group went on to have several UK hits, including Sound of the Underground, The Promise, Love Machine, Jump and Call The Shots.

Girls Aloud reunited in 2012 after a short hiatus, to release and tour a greatest hits album. They announced their split in 2013.

Harding has since taken on several acting roles, including appearances in Run for Your Wife, and St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold.

She appeared on the Channel 4 reality show The Jump in 2016, but was forced to pull out after suffering a knee injury.

In 2017, she won Celebrity Big Brother.

How can you spot breast cancer?

The most common sign of breast cancer is a lump or thickening in the breast - but there are other symptoms too.

They include:

• Change in size or feel of the breast

• Changes in the skin of the breast, such as dimpling or redness

• Fluid leaking from the nipple, outside of pregnancy or breast feeding

• Change in position of the nipple

These symptoms can be caused by other conditions, so it is important to get any lumps or changes checked by a doctor.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with women over 50 more at risk than the under 40s.

But there are many other factors that can increase a person's risk, including a family history of cancer and being overweight.

Many treatments are available for breast cancer and survival is generally good if the disease is detected early.