Tannishtha Chatterjee on her stage 4 cancer battle: ‘In darkest moments, I discovered love’

Sharing her eight-month-long fight with oligometastatic cancer, the actor credited her family and friends, including Vidya Balan, Dia Mirza and Shabana Azmi, for standing by her with “fierce love and empathy

New Delhi: Actor Tannishtha Chatterjee, known for her roles in both Hindi and English independent films like "Parched" and "Brick Lane", has revealed that she is battling stage 4 oligometastatic cancer for past eight months.

In an emotional note shared on Instagram, the 44-year-old actor shared her diagonsis.

"As if losing my father to cancer was not enough. 8 months back I got diagnosed of stage 4 oligo metastatic cancer," she captioned her photographwhere she is sitting on a sofa with her shaved head.

The actor called her note a message of love and strength rather than pain.

"It can’t get worse than this. A 70yr old mother and 9 year all daughter .. both totally dependent on me. But in the darkest moments, I discovered an extraordinary kind of love, the kind that shows up, holds space, and never lets you feel alone. I found it in my amazing friends and my family, whose unwavering support, brought , genuine smiles to my face, even on the hardest days," she said.

Sharing an old photo of a celebration with friends Vidya Balan, Dia Mirza, Shabana Azmi and Konkona Sen Sharma, the actor said in a world racing towards AI, human compassion remains her saving grace.

"It is their empathy, their messages, their presence – their humanity – that is bringing life back. Cheers to female friendships, the sisterhood that showed up for me with fierce love, deep empathy, and unstoppable strength. You know who you are – and I am endlessly grateful."

In oligometastatic cancer, the cells from the original tumour spread over to other parts of the body.

Other than "Parched" and "Brick Lane", the actor is also known for her movie with Bret Lee "UnIndian", "Angry Indian Goddesses", "Doctor Rakhmabai" and "Anna Karenina". She last appeared in the Paresh Rawal starrer "The Storyteller".