Cuckoo’s Nest’s Nurse Ratched, Louise Fletcher, battled cancer

Milos Foreman directs One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

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Louise Fletcher won an Academy Award for her unforgettable portrayal of the wicked Nurse Ratched in 1976, but she also starred in Cruel Intentions (1999). While she spent many years away from the limelight to raise her family, tributes came rushing in when her agent, David Shaul, confirmed she had passed away on Friday, September 23, 2022. On Twitter, The Sting posted: “I hate Nurse Ratched. She’s every bureaucratic authoritarian I’ve ever come across.

“But I love Louise Fletcher for giving us all this glorious benchmark. She was absolutely magnificent in Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Jon Wesley Huff stated on the social media platform: “Ah, Louise Fletcher. What a talent.

“I know Nurse Ratched is her most famous role, but she was the most delicious and hateable villain in Deep Space Nine [sic].

“I loved when she showed up in an episode. You were really in trouble when she smiled.”

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Fletcher took her final breath at her home in the south of France.

While Fletcher is said to have died from natural causes, she did battle breast cancer during her lifetime.

Breast cancer

Cancer Research UK stated that breast cancer “is the most common cancer in the UK”.

The charity explained that breast cancer “most commonly starts in the cells that line the ducts of the breast”.

One in seven women in the UK develop the cancerous lesion, with the disease more commonly affecting older women.

Breast cancer symptoms to look out for include:

  • A new lump or thickening in your breast or armpit
  • A change in size, shape or feel of your breast
  • Skin changes in the breast such as puckering, dimpling, a rash or redness of the skin
  • Fluid leaking from the nipple in a woman who isn’t pregnant or breast feeding
  • Changes in the position of the nipple.

“It is important that any symptoms you have are checked by a doctor, even if you are feeling well,” Cancer Research UK noted.

Women between the ages of 50 to 70 in the UK will be invited for breast screening every three years.

Known as a mammogram, it involves taking X-rays of the breasts to find tumours.

As the screening occurs every three years, any signs of breast cancer between screenings should be checked out by a doctor.

“In some parts of England, the screening programme has been inviting women from 47 to 73 years old as part of a trial,” Cancer Research UK added.

Should breast cancer be detected, treatment will depend on the size of the tumour, whether it has spread elsewhere in the body, and the person’s health.

Options can include radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy.

There is a risk that breast cancer can return post treatment, as it did with Fletcher.

However, there are regular follow-ups after initial treatment so that any reoccurring tumour can be dealt with.

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