Cheryl Tweedy makes rare public appearance in elegant black gown for important reason

Cheryl Tweedy made a rare public appearance to attend a charity event held in honour of her late bandmate Sarah Harding.

The singer, 39, wore a full-length black gown to the Primrose Ball, where she was pictured alongside fellow Girls Aloud members.

She accessorised with a bright prink clutch bag and wore her hair in an elegant up-do for the poignant occasion held in London.

The group – which also includes Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts – organised the event in tribute of Harding who passed away, aged 39, in September 2021.

The ball, held at The Londoner Hotel, was to fulfil the late singer's dying wish of raising money to fund a study by her oncologist.

In the summer of 2020, the late singer had revealed publicly that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer after beginning to experience symptoms.

Read More: Girls Aloud - it's a 'daily challenge' dealing with Sarah Harding's death

She opened up in her book Hear Me Out, published last year, that increasingly severe pain around her breast was the first sign she was suffering.

Harding – who went on to have a mastectomy and chemotherapy – wrote: "I’d been staying at my mum’s through lockdown, but Covid wasn’t showing any signs of going away, and it was just getting worse.

"One day I woke up realising that I’d been in denial. Yes, there was a lockdown, yes, there was a pandemic, but it was almost as if I’d been using that as an excuse not to face up to the fact that something was very wrong."

Also in attendance at the event – which coincides with Breast Cancer Awareness Month – was Tweedy's ex-boyfriend Liam Payne, with whom she shares five-year-old son Bear.

Read more: How to check for breast cancer symptoms and detect the condition early

The group made a decision not to perform at the event, with Walsh telling The Sun that it "doesn’t feel right without her".

In July, they took part in a Race For Life run in London's Hyde Park to raise further fund for breast cancer research.

Watch: Girls Aloud say it wouldn't 'feel right' to perform at Sarah Harding's charity gala