Hollyoaks actress Ali Bastian gives health update amid breast cancer battle
Former 'Hollyoaks' star Ali Bastian has admitted it's hard to feel like a ‘“fighter” all the time.
The actress, 42, has given fans amid breast cancer battle. Ali Bastian - who is best known as Becca Dean in the Channel 4 soap (2001-2007) - revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2024.
Sharing a selfie with her headscarf on, she wrote on her Instagram Story: "Some days you don’t my feel like the fighter people tell you you are, and that's ok too. This is not an easy path. There is cortisol in tears and they are better out than in. (sic)"
Ali - who now lives in Ireland with her husband and two young daughters - has been having weekly chemotherapy sessions before she undergoes a mastectomy and radiotherapy next year. The soap star, who has stage two breast cancer, admits some days it's impossible to hold back the tears.
Speaking to OK! last month about her diagnosis, she said: “It was a total shock. “I have mornings when I wake up and I’ve forgotten… and then suddenly I remember. I’m still trying to process it.”
Ali was breastfeeding her and husband David O’Mahony's youngest daughter Isabella when she came across a lump. The mother-of-two - who also has four-year-old daughter Isla with her spouse - shared: “I hadn’t been breastfeeding Izzy at night but then David flew back to London for work and suddenly she was feeding like crazy.
“I was thinking, ‘Maybe she’s having a growth spurt or something.’ And because of that, my boobs felt sore. The next morning, I woke up and thought, ‘Ouch, this really hurts.’ And that’s when I felt a lump."
The TV actress assumed she had a "blocked duct" and was given a course of antibiotics, but it wasn't clearing up, so on her doctor's advice, she headed to a breast clinic. She continued: “It was a bank holiday in Ireland, so I went straight to the emergency doctor.
“It really seemed like I had mastitis, especially as I had been night-weaning Izzy before that. We thought I probably had a blocked duct. The doctor gave me antibiotics and said that if it didn’t clear up in a few days I should go to the breast clinic.
“But it wasn’t clearing up and the more I felt it, the more it felt like this wasn’t just a blocked duct. I went to my GP and I said, ‘Actually, can I go to the clinic now?’ and she was very supportive of that.” Ali received the shock news via telephone but was reassured that they said they have "intent to cure" her.
Natalie Dixon is NationalWorld’s Lifestyle reporter. If you liked this article and want to read more about celebrities, fashion, beauty and lifestyle you can follow Natalie Dixon on X here.