Geordie superstar Cheryl paid tribute to former Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding at an an emotional charity run in Hyde Park.
Cheryl - who took part in the Race for Life along with fellow stars Kimberly Walsh, Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts - said "it doesn’t feel like she’s gone at all", as they joined fans and supporters for the 5k run celebrating Sarah's life and raising money to help the fight against breast cancer.
Sarah Harding died aged 39 last September. She had breast cancer which had spread to other parts of her body. At the event in London, Cheryl said: "To be honest, I’ve never experienced or anticipated this grief. You know, I’ve lost grandparents when I was younger and I lost a friend when I was younger but nothing like this, the feeling of shock and disbelief and it still lingers now to be honest. I still can’t quite believe it’s real."
Asked about any possibility of a Girls Aloud reunion, she told the PA news agency: "It hasn’t even been a year. It doesn’t feel like she’s gone at all."
Cheryl, Nicola and Nadine all donned pink T-shirts at the Race for Life, while bandmate Kimberly took part in the event remotely. When the three singers took to the stage at Hyde Park, Nicola held her phone up and said she could not reach Walsh at that moment and suggested she might be warming up or on her own race.
Cheryl also said it was great the surviving Girls Aloud members were able to take part in the event for Sarah, adding: "You feel so helpless, you’ve never felt hopelessness like it, it’s horrendous. So the fact that she had one request that we can fulfil is like great for us because it just feels like we’re doing something.
"We felt like there was nothing we could do for so long.” The band’s fundraising efforts are to set to conclude with a large gala dinner later in the year.
Nadine said she was "In denial" about her old bandmate's illness and death. She said: "This time last year we were actually hanging out. We all met up last year. She was there and we were talking and she didn’t even seem that sick.
"I was in denial the entire time and was the friend that was ‘Oh, it’s gonna be all right’, you know, I was completely in denial right up until the day she passed.”
Remembering Sarah, Nicola went on to say: “Obviously coming together now quite often to get things happening is strange because her energy was so electric that we’re kind of… the four of us have such a chill…
"Sarah’s energy was like a firework so I feel like that huge difference in energy when she’s not there. I think that for us right now, we don’t feel like Girls Aloud. We don’t feel like a band without Sarah. She, like I said just now, she was such a huge part of our energy that it doesn’t feel like that."
The girl band was formed on TV show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 and went on to have hit tracks including Sound Of The Underground and The Promise. They disbanded in 2013 and have all had successful solo careers in music and TV.
The link to Race for Life for Sarah can be found here.
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