The Accidental Cancer Discovery That Saved Anastacia (E437)

Jake Humphrey (0:03)

Anastacia, welcome to High Performance. It's so nice to meet you. Thank you very much for being here. We should also say big thanks to the players of Postcode Lottery, who are helping to fund an amazing breast cancer charity called Breast Cancer Now. We're going to meet their CEO in a bit, but you're here to talk about your own breast cancer journey. And as I was reading through your story, I kind of got this sense that every time something in life tried to diminish you, somehow it actually had the effect of making you bigger and greater than you were before. So if you're cool with this, I would love to go through some of those moments that from the outside and maybe even from the inside felt like it was going to diminish you. And you proved the opposite.

So before we talk about your story and what actually happened to you, I'd love to rewind to you at 34 millions of records being sold, arenas being filled, the career that you had fought so hard to make a reality, that amazing voice that caught everyone off guard when they heard you sing for the very first time. What was that Anastasia like?

Anastacia (0:59)

She was still quite shocked that people were very excited and wanted to embrace the voice and the look and the vibe I had because I didn't really feel I had someone to look up to that was that.

So, for me, it was, I didn't know it would last, or didn't think it would last. And my real reaction to all of being what I was then was, it was a fairy tale. It was just like, this is surreal. This is not how life is. Especially for me, it wasn't. I was collecting an unemployment check the year I got signed to Sony. Like, it just was, it was surreal.

Jake Humphrey (1:50)

So you'd have to overcome a lot to even be that woman.

Anastacia (1:54)

You know, I don't know that I was overcoming. I was just being. I think everyone does that every day. You know, they try to pay for their this and try to pay for their that. I never really looked at it as anything different than what everybody else was doing. So I was the blue collar person. I was the normie.

It's just trying to go, am I going to pay the rent? Or what are we going to do? Just not do the laundry? Or we're going to go back and forth with the jeans a little longer before we wash them? Like, just doing what we do.

Jake Humphrey (2:25)

The reason why I was very keen to have this conversation with you is that I think human beings don't actually realize the resilience and the power that we hold within until we're really tested. And then came a moment where you were really tested. So am I right in saying that you went to the doctor for a breast reduction?

Anastacia (2:40)

Yes, and I wouldn't have even had a choice to do that had I not gotten a deal that gave me some extra money to be able to be like, my mom got this and it really helped her back. And I had neck issues and I was very uncomfortable the size I was. So I wanted to be smaller and which still was a size that was very sizable.

So I wanted it and I had some time that I could do this. And many of my friends were like, don't, don't, don't. Everyone would die for your size. And I'm like, well, good for them. They can go to the store. They hadn't got my neck in my back. The doctor's store and do that. And so it was really mainly just for my own, I would say health slash vanity. And I say vanity for being more comfortable in my body because I was quite uncomfortable that this was more of a distraction for me. And I felt other people.

So that's why I showed my mid-drift much in my life, because I felt that that took the attention away from the upper part. And it did. Everybody was like, I have great abs. I'm like, you know, I'd be okay with that.

Jake Humphrey (4:05)

You felt like I don't want to be defined by.

Anastacia (4:07)

I just was very uncomfortable with that kind of attention.

Jake Humphrey (4:11)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anastacia (4:12)

I think on my last appointment with the plastic surgeon, he said, I'd like you to go, you get your blood work. This is a normal surgery routine. And then I also want you to get a mammogram.