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Michaela Strachan has candidly discussed her ‘shocker’ of a year after three devastating losses and a battle with breast cancer.

The Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch presenter, 57, was diagnosed at the beginning of 2014 after a routine mammogram, but went on to make a full recovery after a double mastectomy which was followed by reconstructive surgery.

She then struggled with grief after losing her sister-in-law, and two of her close friends lost children.

Michaela has now signed up to take part in the new series of Pilgrimage on BBC Two. 

Speaking to the Express after filming the show, Michaela said: ‘These were people our age. I know I’m getting on but I’m 57 – I shouldn’t know this number of people who have died.

Michaela Strachan has candidly discussed her 'shocker' of a year after three devastating losses and a battle with breast cancer

Michaela Strachan has candidly discussed her ‘shocker’ of a year after three devastating losses and a battle with breast cancer

The Springwatch presenter, 57, has signed up to take part in the new series of Pilgrimage on BBC Two

The Springwatch presenter, 57, has signed up to take part in the new series of Pilgrimage on BBC Two

‘I went from her funeral, basically, to Pilgrimage. So I was carrying grief, which made it a different journey.’

Michaela added: ‘I don’t think I would have processed the grief.

‘I would have compartmentalised it. I can be quite controlling in my own emotions sometimes.’

Michaela previously revealed how her worst fears were confirmed after a routine mammogram at the beginning of 2014.

Surgeons advised her to have a double mastectomy since there was a risk of the lobular cancer spreading from one breast to the other.

The presenter told The Mail On Sunday at the time: ‘I couldn’t get my head around the fact that on Monday morning I’d been apparently healthy, by Tuesday I had cancer, and by Wednesday I was talking about a double mastectomy.’

She went onto have reconstructive surgery and has worked as an ambassador for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, stressing the importance of having regular mammograms.

The TV presenter has now signed up to take part in the new series of Pilgrimage on BBC Two.

She revealed she signed up to the faith-based series not because she’s religious (she isn’t), but because the outdoorsy presenter was eager to tackle the two-week trek in Wales.

Yet fate got in the way and it became a journey laden with grief for Michaela, who’s best known as a Springwatch co-host.

‘Last year was heartbreakingly sad,’ she says. ‘I lost several people in a short space of time. I lost my sister-in-law to cancer , my partner Nick’s best friend had a heart attack, one of my friends lost her son at 35, and then one of my closest friends died.’

Michaela struggled with grief after losing her sister-in-law, and two of her close friends lost children

Michaela struggled with grief after losing her sister-in-law, and two of her close friends lost children

Michaela, 57, and Lucy Bowden, a former Springwatch producer, grew close when Lucy was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years after Michaela, who had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in 2014.

‘After Lucy’s diagnosis we became very close and I helped her through it, but her cancer came back in 2021. I was with her three days before she died. We started filming Pilgrimage last September a week after her funeral, so I was grieving.

‘The point of a pilgrimage is to explore your emotions. We had conversations on the show that were triggering for me. I found it emotionally challenging and sneaked off a lot on my own. Normally I’d join in with the group, but I had a lot to process.’

Michaela is joined on the show by reality star Spencer Matthews, Plebs’ Tom Rosenthal, Traitors contestant and practising Catholic Amanda Lovett, Paddy McGuinness’s ex-wife Christine, stand-up comic Eshaan Akbar, who’s Muslim, and Escape To The Country’s Sonali Shah, who was raised in India’s Jain religion.

The journey saw them tackle the Pilgrim’s Way, which links churches honouring early Celtic saints. They travel – on foot and by bus – 220km through Wales’s slate landscape and Snowdonia.

Spencer Matthews hoped it would help him get in touch with his feelings, particularly over the loss of his older brother Michael who died on Mount Everest in 1999, aged 22, and whose body has never been found.

‘I felt welcomed for sharing the story,’ says Spencer, 35. ‘That’s when things turned for me. I became more open to the spiritual experiences we shared as a group.’ But it was Tom Rosenthal who was most affected by the pilgrimage.

Michaela is joined on the show by reality star Spencer Matthews, Plebs' Tom Rosenthal, Traitors contestant and practising Catholic Amanda Lovett, Paddy McGuinness's ex-wife Christine, stand-up comic Eshaan Akbar, who's Muslim, and Escape To The Country's Sonali Shah, who was raised in India's Jain religion

Michaela is joined on the show by reality star Spencer Matthews, Plebs’ Tom Rosenthal, Traitors contestant and practising Catholic Amanda Lovett, Paddy McGuinness’s ex-wife Christine, stand-up comic Eshaan Akbar, who’s Muslim, and Escape To The Country’s Sonali Shah, who was raised in India’s Jain religion

Although he’s of Jewish heritage, Tom was brought up without religion, but he found visiting the ancient churches and soaking up the awe-inspiring views had a profound impact on him.

‘I had what I would consider to be two, maybe three, religious experiences on this pilgrimage, which I didn’t anticipate,’ says Tom, 36.

‘They were moments in which I do feel the divine revealed itself to me. It’s one of the best things I’ve done in my life and I’m just deeply grateful for this entire experience.’

One sacred moment occurred when the group visited 15th-century St Winefride’s Chapel and Holy Well in Flintshire, where in the 7th century a Welsh abbot is said to have brought Winefride, his niece, back to life.

‘Without wanting to sound like a crazy person, when I sat on a mound outside, Winefride talked to me,’ says Tom.

‘She said we were on the right path as a group. This mad stuff you hear religious people talk about happened to me, and now it doesn’t sound so mad. It was awesome, and I left feeling a lot more spiritually connected than I have ever been.’

Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales, Good Friday, 9pm, BBC2.

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This post first appeared on Daily mail

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