She won hearts playing Darcy Callahan on hit soapie Home and Away. But it’s her latest battle that has won Alea O’Shea a legion of new fans.
The 25-year-old has opened up about her shock brain cancer diagnosis and her determination to beat the killer disease.
O’Shea was diagnosed just after her birthday in November last year, after a numb pinky alerted her that something wasn’t quite right while on a work trip to Los Angeles.
“I thought I had pinched a nerve or something,” O’Shea tells today’s Body+Soul.
“I planned to see my physio when I got back to Australia, but I actually ended up in hospital with a kidney infection for a week.
“When I finally got to see my physio, he did some tests and told me to go back to hospital,” O’Shea said.
“I started crying because I really didn’t want to go back there, but thank God I did, because they did a scan that night and found something on my brain.”
Following a series of tests, a biopsy finally revealed the truth – O’Shea had tumour in the parietal lobe of the right side of her brain.
Read the full interview in today’s Body+Soul
“It was such a drawn-out process [getting the diagnosis]. In a weird way, it felt like I had been preparing for weeks, so in the end I just wanted to know,” O’Shea said.
“When they finally said those words – that I had cancer – I was ready to get on with things.”
But before she could start treatment, an MRI would soon discover another tumour – this time sitting on the part of her brain that controls her left hand. And it was one her surgeons told her they couldn’t remove fully as the risk of paralysis was too high.
“My surgeon removed as much as they could, and I’ve only lost sensation – not total movement – in the left side of my body,” O’Shea said.
The actor and social media influencer also opened up about the toll the treatment has taken on her – and those around her.
“Some mornings, it feels like I’m waking up in a different body. I’ve gained weight during treatment, and recently my legs have been so swollen that I can’t get out of bed without a cane,” she said.
“I can still only walk for about 15 minutes.
“I have to accept right now that I am disabled. I’m learning to work with the body I have, rather than trying to force it to be the body it once was.
“On the days when I need to cry, I feel those feelings and let it out. And on the good days, I choose to really enjoy the moment and not focus on future hardship,” she said.
As the youngest of three siblings, O’Shea told Body+Soul her thoughts are also with her family
“I’m the youngest and the only daughter in my family – I have two older brothers – so seeing the ripple effect on my parents and brothers was hard,” she said.
“I know our first instincts to reach out to the person who has been diagnosed, but I’ve realised we also need to check in on the people closest to them. We have to support the support system.”
O’Shea is part of a cancer support group for women aged between 18 and 30 called Brain Cancer Baddies and has also started her own non-profit CEARE raising funds to gift bonded wigs to cancer patients across Australia.
She also hasn’t given up on her passion for acting.
“I want to work in LA and live in New York, and even explore projects in the UK,” she said.
“Honestly, more than anything, I just want to feel healthy and happy. My diagnosis has been a necessary perspective shift. My focus is now on spending time with the people I love, creating memories and laughing more”.