Springwatch stalwart Michaela Strachan is gearing up to show off her skating skills in Dancing On Ice after a "relentless" year of personal tragedy. The wildlife presenter opened up about her tumultuous time during on the On The Marie Curie Couch podcast, describing the past 12 months as "really sad."
Michaela spoke candidly about the pain of bereavement within her group of family and friends, revealing, "There was a lot of loss in my close circle of family and friends, starting off at the beginning of the year with the passing of my sister-in-law who died of cancer... she suffered for three years and eventually passed in January," Michaela confided.
She told listeners how her partner Nick Chevallier's ex-wife had also lost her life to cancer, which gave added gravity to his sister's death. In a tragic twist, around the same period, Nick's best friend died after suffering a heart attack.
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LOOSE WOMEN)Adding to the list of sorrows, Michaela recounted another devastating blow as one of her dear friend's sons had died at the tender age of 35 – an event she described as "heartbreakingly sad to watch a mother go through that kind of loss". Michaela reflected on her friend's bright spirit but noted that her "light will never be as bright again because she's lost a child. And knowing how to help and be there for that friend was very difficult."
However, the loss that hit closest to home for Michaela was that of her dear friend Lucy, who had battled the same kind of breast cancer that she had been treated for. "She had a very similar breast cancer to myself," the star revealed.
"She had a very similar diagnosis to myself and they said 'We've caught it early. It's a small bit of cancer in one breast. We'll do a mastectomy. We'll put you on Tamoxifen. You'll be fine.' Which is exactly the same as I had," Michaela explained.
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BBC/Jo Charlesworth)"And here I am 10 years later and I am fine. My friend wasn't so lucky and hers came back and it spread and we lost her last year." She continued: "And so I walked that journey with my friend, Lucy. And so that hit me really hard. Losing Lucy hit me hard.
Michaela added that having experienced cancer herself, she felt she was able to "get it right" when it came to supporting her friend. The Springwatch presenter recalled: "She was given three months to a year and she lived over a year. So she exceeded the length that she was given.
"And knowing how to be with her and with her family was really difficult, very difficult. But with her, I felt I got it right."
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