Sharon Osbourne: The sacrifice that saved me

With a deadly diagnosis looming, Ozzy’s wife made an agonising decision.

She’s already faced – and beaten – cancer, but when usually tough-talking Sharon Osbourne was dealt her latest blow, she was terrified. The wife of rocker Ozzy battled colon cancer 10 years ago and knew she never wanted to go through such pain again. So when doctors told her earlier this year that she carries a gene that predisposes her to breast cancer, the 60-year-old knew it was time to take drastic action.

“I didn’t want to live under that cloud, worrying every time I felt a lump and counting down the days to my next mammogram,” she told Hello! magazine last week. “The odds were not in my favour. I decided to take everything off and had a double mastectomy.”

During a gruelling 13-hour surgery, Sharon – mum to Aimee, 29, Kelly, 28, and Jack, 27 – had her old implants removed before undergoing a reconstruction to give her “very small and healthy” breasts. While many women in Sharon’s situation struggle with the idea of losing a part of their femininity, she says it was a sacrifice worth making.

“It was a no-brainer. I didn’t even think about my breasts in a nostalgic way, I just wanted to live my life without fear,” she reveals. “[Ozzy] agreed with me. He’s seen me sick before and he didn’t want to risk going there again. “[I feel] lighter now,” Sharon adds. “I used to wake up feeling bothered and I didn’t know why. It was a doomy feeling and thinking, ‘Two weeks to the next mammogram…’ ”