Girls Aloud publicly reunited for the first time in nine years on Sunday, as they honoured their late bandmate Sarah Harding.
Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh took part in A Race for Life for Sarah, a 5k run at Hyde Park which was organised to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
Sarah sadly passed away at the age of 39 last September, after being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2020.
Cheryl, Nadine and Nicola attended the event at Hyde Park in-person this morning, while Kimberley took part remotely.
The 40-year-old couldn’t be there on the day, but appeared via video link on Nicola’s phone as they started the race.
🎥: The full Instagram live of Girls Aloud at Sarah’s Race For Life❤️ pic.twitter.com/uE6sEJeSPs
— Girls Aloud Updates (@GA__Updates) July 24, 2022
Before the race kicked off, Cheryl delivered an emotional speech to the crowd as she paid tribute to Sarah.
She 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.”
Girls Aloud’s Cheryl (@CherylOfficial), Nicola (@NicolaRoberts) and Nadine (@NadineCoyleNow) share some touching words about beloved friend Sarah Harding at Cancer Research UK’s #RaceForLife in her honour 💖
Donate to @CR_UK here if you can: https://t.co/RtZSlwbHyt#TeamSarah pic.twitter.com/3A4gJGkxFx
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) July 24, 2022
The bandmates are currently planning more fundraising activities in Sarah’s honour, including a huge gala dinner in the coming months.
While Cheryl, Nadine, Nicola and Kimberly are working together to remember Sarah, sadly they won’t be reuniting on stage.
Earlier this year, Kimberly told the Mirror: “There won’t be any reunion of any sort.”
“I mean, because of losing Sarah, that’s just not on anybody’s radar right now and that’s why I think as a group, we’ve tried to focus on doing something positive together for her instead, which is actually a really nice focus for us.”
“We’re kind of really just hoping to raise as much money as we possibly can and that will feel like a huge achievement for us,” she added.
