DEVASTATED Nadia Sawalha fought back tears in an emotional video as she shared some heartbreaking news.
Loose Women star Nadia, 60, struggled to contain her emotions while revealing her best friend Hannah Gardner, 37, is in the final stages of her battle with breast cancer.
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The TV personality opened up with fans as she asked for help in securing the future of Hannah’s young autistic daughter, Lila Ray.
Speaking in an Instagram video, she said: “Many of you know Hannah. She is the baby of the Fab Four, the group, the Fab Four.
“And though she, I think, is the smartest, wildest – when I say wild, I mean in her courage – that’s what I mean. One out of the four of us.”
Describing Hannah as “the most loyal friend” and “a tireless advocate for other women with breast cancer”, Nadia highlighted her friend’s extraordinary resilience and determination.
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“She trekked the Himalayas. I’ve seen her pull herself up from just having had treatment and drag herself to be on telly or in front of parliament to speak up, to speak up for other women,” she shared.
Despite living with cancer for 12 years, Hannah has always maintained a positive spirit, Nadia explained.
But now, with a diagnosis of stage four incurable breast cancer, her time has been cut short.
Nadia said of her daughter: “Lila is bright, curious, and loving, but her autism means she’ll need lifelong care and support.
“Hannah’s deepest wish is to secure Lila’s future – specialist care, therapy, and a safety net to ease the road ahead.”
The situation has become even more challenging as Hannah’s husband, a firefighter, may have to leave his job to become a full-time carer for Lila.
Nadia pleaded: “Life insurance and long-term plans were out of reach when cancer arrived. So that’s where we can all help.”
She urged people to contribute to Lila’s Your Mummy Loves You Forever Fund, explaining that donations would ensure Hannah’s final wish – her daughter’s security – is fulfilled.
Nadia said: “Your support will give her peace of mind. Knowing that Lila’s future is secure will let Hannah focus on what matters most: creating memories with Lila and surrounding her with love.”
For those unable to donate, Nadia emphasized that simply sharing the message or offering words of support could still make a difference.
She concluded: “Thank you for helping us give Hannah the gift of peace and ensuring Lila feels her mother’s love for years to come.”
Nadia has been leading a desperate effort to raise £150k to fund a legal appeal that could enable the NHS to roll out a game-changing cancer drug.
Thousands of women in England, Wales and Northern Ireland living with secondary breast cancer faced a hammer blow when Enhertu – which is used to treat patients like them in 25 countries including Scotland – was denied for use on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to its cost.
It’s estimated to be around £10,000 per patient per year in the US where it is available to cancer patients.
Hannah, whom Nadia calls her ‘daughter’, had been on Enhertu as part of a clinical trial that saw her also having to take a more toxic drug as part of its conditions.
The mum-of-one’s tumours had previously responded well to the life-extending medicine, but the delay in getting onto the trial allowed her stage 4 cancer to spread.
In a November interview with The Sun, Nadia explained why the group, which has raised £45,000 towards its target at the time of writing, is having to self-fund lawyers to contest NICE’s decision.
Speaking from her home, she said: “Big Pharma told us that NHS England have been offered it [Enhertu] at the lowest price of anyone else that’s taken Enhertu. And so that’s NICE then, who are in charge of approving.
“I was in the [Royal] Marsden many times with Hannah and them saying, ‘oh, well, it will come through. There’s always a bit of this back and forth and it will come through’.
“You know, it’s an amazing drug. Nothing’s had this reaction since Herceptin, which we know has saved hundreds of thousands of women’s lives.
“So everybody thought it was a dead cert, but what happened is there’s something called a severity modifier; if you imagine, secondary breast cancer was in the column of a severe disease and there was a certain pot of money for that, but they moved it across the column to moderately severe. Now there is no cure for secondary breast cancer.
“So for those women to be told that their disease wasn’t severe and was only moderate and that that pot of money that was over there is now no longer available to buy this drug was just devastating.”
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