Sharon Osbourne: my cancer

The phone rings next to the hospital bed and Sharon Osbourne's eyes move toward the ceiling. "It's Ozzy again," she sighs. "He calls every 10 minutes just to make sure I'm all right. It's very sweet actually, that's why I fell in love with him to begin with." Dressed immaculately and surrounded by flowers sent by her husband Ozzy, Sharon tells him everything is fine and to "get back to work". They kiss into the phone before hanging up.

Their love is what keeps Sharon in fighting spirit. Diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this month, the 49-year-old has been through more in the past few weeks than she'd like. "I've never had so much picking and prodding in a lifetime. It's embarrassing. They had to find the damn thing in my backside," she joked.

It's the latest crisis in Sharon Osbourne's life with Birmingham-born heavy-metal rock star Ozzy. Sharon, daughter of English showbusiness promoter Don Arden, is widely recognised as having rescued her husband's ailing career, wrecked by years of drink and drugs abuse. She sent him back to rehab, took over as his business manager and got him back on the music scene - and stage. Ozzy starred in the Queen's Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace in June. The family are now known to millions of music fans worldwide through the bizarre - but hugely popular - MTV docusoap, The Osbournes.

Though she is known to be tough in her working life, it's now her husband and children Aimee, 18, Kelly, 17, and Jack, 16, who are helping Sharon face each day with renewed resolve. She is - for once - showing a vulnerable side. "I really owe my life to my husband," she says.

"Everyone knows Ozzy is the world's biggest hypochondriac... he's always having things checked out. He went in for a physical in June and they found polyps (small growths) on his colon. He was relieved that everything turned out all right, but he kept on at me to get checked as well. He bothered me night and day, so I finally gave in and went. I absolutely hate doctors - and hospitals even more. But to make him happy I went along with the check-up."

On 3 July, wanting to get the "bloody thing out of the way" she had a colonoscopy, when a flexible lighted tube is used to examine the lower intestine. The results were stunning and something Sharon said she had never even considered. She was diagnosed with cancer.

"I had flown to New York to be with Kelly, who is recording her first album. I was exhausted, but I'm always tired so I didn't think about it. I now know I was anaemic as hell. I had apparently been bleeding internally because of the cancer."

When Sharon returned to Kelly's apartment there was an urgent message from the doctors to contact them immediately. "I was alarmed," says Sharon quietly. "I knew something wasn't right."

Indeed, all was not right. Sharon got the news over the phone that they had found cancerous growths and she must return immediately for surgery. "I can't explain the way I felt. It was as if someone had punched me in the stomach." Ozzy, who was back in Los Angeles rehearsing for the annual heavy metal music tour Ozzfest, which he headlines, was not prepared for the diagnosis.

"When I heard the news I simply and utterly fell apart at the seams," says the self-styled "Prince of Darkness". "This is the love of my life, and the thought that I could lose her was more than I could bear."

Sharon and the children flew back to Los Angeles. "We cried on the plane," says Sharon. "Buckets and buckets of tears. When Ozzy met us at the airport he had brought my precious dog, Minnie, to cheer me up." That evening the Osbournes' doctor had to visit the family home to sedate Ozzy. "He was hysterical, just terrified," says Sharon.

"I started feeling worse for him and my children than I did for myself. They are my life, and I worry constantly about them. There is a lot of love in this family. The mum holds a family together, and I decided at that point, I'm fighting this thing."

The worst, however, was yet to come. On 8 July the doctors called with news that two lymph nodes removed during surgery had tested positive for cancerous cells - the disease had spread outside the colon. "I was distraught but realised that I was lucky to be alive," says Sharon. "I was told I needed to start a three-month regime of chemotherapy, but at least my prognosis is good. I don't relish the idea but, hell, maybe I can breathe a little life and energy into the situation for everyone. Maybe we can sing a few songs and cheer everyone up."

As MTV prepares to start the second season of The Osbournes, Sharon is looking forward to letting them film the entire process. "I've agreed to let MTV film me having my chemo treatments. Perhaps I can help someone else who is going through the same thing. I know it's not going to be easy, or pretty, but Sharon is undergoing treatment to bring her red blood cell count up before starting chemotherapy. "They removed more than a foot of my colon, so I'm on a soft-food diet, things like jelly and chicken soup - with no chicken," she laughs. Family chef Gloria Lopez is trying to be as creative as possible with the blandest of foods.

With no family history of cancer, the diagnosis was a tremendous shock. "I had no idea that nearly 90 per cent of colon cancer was in people aged 50 or over," says Sharon. "It's frightening. I used to drink heavily decades ago but now I only drink a glass of wine with dinner. But I have always been a junk-food junkie. The way I've eaten in the past probably contributed to my cancer, but I can't regret the past."

Sharon battled with her weight for years. "I'm only around 5ft 2in but I weighed over 14 stone five years ago and I was worried about my health. I had tried every diet and nothing worked," she says. In 1999 Sharon decided to undergo gastric bypass surgery, in a last-ditch attempt to lose weight. She lost almost half her total weight within the first month.

Doctors say the surgery did not increase Sharon's odds of getting the colon cancer. "It was the best thing I've done for myself. I only wish I'd done it earlier," she says.

Ozzy claims that although he's amazed by his wife's transformation-it didn't change the way he's always felt about her. "She's my soul mate," he says. "I always said that if anything happened to her I'd never get married again. Sharon and Ozzy - we're a team. I can't, and won't, imagine my life without her."

Sharon and Ozzy celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on 4 July and now plan to renew their vows on her 50th birthday, 9 October. "I love her more today than the day I married her, if that's possible," says Ozzy. "She's my world."

As an act of solidarity and love for his wife, the long-haired rocker has vowed to shave his head if Sharon loses her hair during the chemotherapy treatment. "We'll be the 'Baldbournes' together," he jokes.