Cassandra Thorburn has opened up in a heartbreakingly candid admission about the side effect of cancer that often goes unspoken – cancer ghosting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Australian children’s author was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer in February this year and has been candid about her journey ever since.<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old recently addressed the “taboo” topic known as “cancer ghosting” – a phenomenon where friends, family members and those closest to a person suddenly pull away after they learn of the cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n
The post read: “A taboo cancer topic – cancer ghosting. Some resources to help you if it has happened to you.”<\/p>\n
She shared an excerpt from a pointed TED Talk claiming the phenomenon was widely experienced among cancer sufferers.<\/p>\n
“A recent side conversation got me thinking about a seemingly taboo cancer topic: Cancer ghosting,” Thorburn read to the camera.<\/p>\n
“What is it? And why can it be more painful than cancer treatment, according to a survivor article I read?”<\/p>\n
She added that for anyone who has gone through this, or is currently going through it, it is “not your fault”.<\/p>\n
“I want to reassure cancer sufferers currently experiencing this often sudden abandonment or withdrawal that it’s not your fault.”<\/p>\n
“It’s typically driven by those friends’ own emotional limitations rather than their lack of care.”<\/p>\n
Commenters sympathised with the post, while others shared their own experiences.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s awful and it\u2019s absolutely, heartbreakingly real because we think people will lean into kindness and support during times of hardship,” one person wrote.<\/p>\n
Another wrote: “I’m just at the start of my treatment, but I understand it. It’s a lot for me to handle and at times.”<\/p>\n
“It is certainly a thing. This happened to me. Some people can\u2019t cope and don\u2019t mean to be thoughtless, but they just can\u2019t deal with it. Wishing you all the best,” another commented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s disappointing, but then others will show up for you that you least expected. Thanks for talking about this,” wrote a fourth.<\/p>\n
Thorburn has not shied away from the realities of facing cancer alone, sharing a recent social media post in which she sent “everyone a virtual hug, especially those of you on your own”.<\/p>\n
“A one foot in front of the other kind of day walking to Chemo treatment today,” Thorburn wrote.<\/p>\n
“Sending everyone on the chemo journey, especially those of you on our own, a virtual hug.<\/p>\n
“I am with you in the dark of the night when the house is quiet and your thoughts are loud.”<\/p>\n
Thorburn was married to Today host Karl Stefanovic for 21 years before their shock split in 2016.<\/p>\n
Karl has since married model and shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough in 2018 before the couple welcomed a baby in 2020.<\/p>\n
Thorburn has previously opened up to Woman’s Day on the “very dark days” that followed the breakdown of her marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were days in the beginning I would get up, put on a brave face and drop the kids at school, then I\u2019d get to the back door and I would lie in a heap for the rest of the day unable to move,\u201d she told Woman\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were very dark days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cassandra Thorburn has opened up in a heartbreakingly candid admission about the side effect of cancer that often…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,328223,252846,447,134,12304],"class_list":["post-680550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cancer-ghosting","tag-cassandra-thorburn","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-karl-stefanovic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}