Jackie was the younger sister of actress Joan Collins, but she only told her sibling about her illness two weeks before she died.
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Collins had her last interview with People magazine, which first reported her death, a week ago.
“She’s very positive and very social, but I’m not sure how strong she is, so I didn’t want to burden her with it.”
I was religious about doing mammograms regularly.
Although Jackie knew she should seek medical help, she was “completely doctor-phobic” and couldn’t bring herself to do so.
“My voice was so choked with tears I could hardly speak”.
She only found out about her sister’s illness in the fortnight before her death. “I did it my way, as Frank Sinatra would say”. “So I happily, happily went day by day”. She explained that since we spent so much time in Europe while she was in LA, she knew I would be anxious but there would be nothing I could do.
“She was my best friend…I admire how she handled this”.
“I thought, ‘I’m not dealing with this, ‘ because in my mind I decided it was benign”. I feel her spirit, I hear her wonderful laugh and I see her all the time in the hundreds of photos of her that are sprinkled around my home. Some of her books were so steamy, they were banned not just by a single library, or from certain stores, but by entire countries including Australia and South Africa.
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Dame Joan has requested that people who read her online tribute make donations to Penny Brohn Cancer Care in the United Kingdom and the Susan G. Komen breast cancer organisation in the USA.
