2024 in review: Shannen Doherty's emotional goodbye

Of all the celebrity deaths in 2024, Shannen Doherty's really hurt. She was just 53 when she passed of cancer in July, but in the months leading up to it, she openly discussed living with.. and dying from the disease. Here's some of the wisdom she left us with near the end.

In June 2023, the 'Beverly Hills, 90210' star revealed her stage 4 b r e a s t cancer had metastasized to her brain, and she later disclosed it had spread to her bones.

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Since learning her cancer was terminal, Shannen Doherty was openly preparing for her departure, aiming to leave everything in order, especially for her beloved mom.

In an episode of her podcast, 'Let's Be Clear,' Doherty shared that she's using her time to do everything she wants and to make her mother, Rose Elizabeth's, path easier.

Photo: Instagram  / theshando

"Because it's going to be so hard on her, I want other things to be a lot easier. I don't want her to have a bunch of stuff to deal with," she said.

"I don't want her to have four storage units filled with furniture," she said, recognizing that she had been a bit of a hoarder when it comes to furniture.

Photo: Instagram / theshando

So, Doherty decided to part with many of her belongings. “I’m not enjoying it and others aren’t enjoying it, and do I really need any of it? Do I need? Do I need to have, you know, three dining room tables?” she continued. “And the answer is no. Like, none of us really need all the stuff that we have, and we can all, you know, do with a little bit of downsizing."

“It feels like you’re giving up on something that was very special and important to you,” Doherty explained. “You know that it’s the right thing to do, and you know that it’s going to give you a sense of peace and a sense of calm. And because you’re helping the people that you leave behind just have a cleaner, easier transition.”

She said experiences now are so much more important than "stuff." “It doesn’t really bring me any great joy, but what does bring me great joy is taking my mom to the places that she's always wanted to go to,” Doherty said, adding that she hoped to travel with her mom instead.

Photo: Instagram theshando

Besides the extra money for travel and making it easier for her family, she said the whole experience with downsizing had improved her quality of life.

In March 2024, a fan on her podcast asked if she was happy. “I am. I am happy,” she replied. “It’s been an interesting year and a half. 2023 did not start great and I found it incredibly challenging. Every day is a challenge because with cancer, things change all the time."

The actress is getting her affairs in order step-by-step, like deciding a few months ago that she wanted her ashes mixed with those of her dog and her father.

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But, even though she's prepared to die, Doherty still wanted to live.

Foto: Instagram / theshando

In her heartbreaking last post on Instagram, she shared weeks before her death that she was starting another round of chemo and she said there was some positivity because the cancer changed and she could try new treatments.

"I'm not afraid of death," she told People Magazine, saying that she is a spiritual person. "I know where I'm going. I know… the people that I'm gonna see. I think I would be afraid of death if I wasn't a good person. But I am."

Foto: Instagram / theshando

"I'm not done with life. I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with… hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not — I’m not done," she continued in the People interview from November 2023. "My greatest memory is yet to come," she added.

Foto: Instagram / theshando

Just because she had terminal cancer, does not mean retreated. Not only did she share the raw truth on her podcast, but she raised awareness about cancer.

She lamented that people with cancer are "put out to pasture." " You're, like, done. You're retired. And we're not," she emphasized. "We have such a different outlook on life. We're just so grateful for every second, every hour, every day that we get to be here."

“When you ask yourself, ‘Why me? Why did I get cancer?’ and then ‘Why did my cancer come back? Why am I stage 4?,’ that leads you to look for the bigger purpose in life,” she told People. "It’s insane to me [that] we still don’t have a cure."

Photo: Instagram / theshando

The actress received her first b r e a s t cancer diagnosis in 2015 and underwent a mastectomy, as well as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In April 2017, she announced the cancer was in remission. Unfortunately, the cancer returned in 2019, and the following year, she revealed her stage 4 metastatic cancer diagnosis.

It was a tough journey. Last January, she had surgery to remove a tumor that had reached her brain, a fact she made public only in June. She named the tumor Bob. “He had to get removed and dissected to see his pathology,” she said on Instagram. “It was definitely one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through in my entire life.”

Foto: Instagram / theshando

And though things were getting harder every day, the actress was thankful for every day, hour, and second she had "I pray. I wake up and go to bed thanking God, praying for the things that matter to me without asking for too much. It connects me to a higher power and spirituality," she told People.

"In the last few hours, she was in a place where she was very comfortable and sleeping and transitioning, and she was surrounded by some of her very close friends," her oncologist Dr. Lawrence D. Piro told People. "It was somber and sad but beautiful and loving. The hardest thing about this was that she wasn't ready to leave because she loved life."

After her passing, the New York Times published an article with that headline. It said that while Doherty was maligned in her heyday for being a "difficult woman," she was a victim of Hollywood's double standards for women and showed her strength in her candor around cancer.

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