Alana Stewart Remembers Midnight Whataburger Run with Farrah Fawcett Following Cancer Treatment Abroad: 'So Farrah' (Exclusive)

Fawcett died in 2009 at age 62

Farrah Fawcett may have become synonymous with the feathered blonde hair and red bathing suit that made her a household name, but the late actress was, at her core, just your average Texas girl, according to her friends. Even when she was facing cancer.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Alana Stewart — a close friend of the late actress and the president of her eponymous foundation — recounts one day in Germany, when Fawcett was undergoing treatment for anal cancer following a 2006 diagnosis.

"She had just had a really painful procedure in Frankfurt and we had to go back to the clinic, and it was late at night," Stewart — who spent extensive time with Fawcett in Germany and filmed a documentary about her friend's cancer journey — tells PEOPLE. "We were in this van or SUV or whatever it was, and there was a bed in the back seat, she was lying down, and she was in pain."

Stewart, 79, continues: "And suddenly, I see in the distance a Whataburger. In Germany. Whataburger is the big chain in Texas, and if Farrah and I were in Texas together, the first thing we'd do is go for Whataburger. So I said, 'Farrah, you won't believe it. There's a Whataburger up there.' And she said, 'Pull over, pull over.' "

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"So we had the driver pull over and I said, 'I'll go in and get you something.' She said, 'No, I'm coming in.' And she insisted on getting up. She had pajama bottoms on or something, and a blanket wrapped around her, and it was like one o'clock in the morning and we went into this Whataburger in Germany. It was just such a funny visual, and it was just so like Farrah."

Donna Mills, 83, star of Knots Landing and a member of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation's board, echoes the sentiment: “She was just one of the gang."

"She was a big star, but she didn't ever act like it. She was just one of the group, always very sweet, very nice, very accommodating, lovely," Mills, who first met Fawcett when the two played tennis together, adds. "It's funny we never worked together. We never had a show together, but I just kind of considered her at the time a pal."

Stewart met Fawcett initially through casting calls. Years later, when Stewart was separated from her first husband, George Hamilton, she connected with Fawcett again at a celebrity tennis tournament. It wasn't until 1979, when she was married to her second husband, Rod Stewart, and pregnant with her daughter Kimberly that Stewart really bonded with Fawcett, whom she ran into at a dinner party.

The deep friendship that formed between the two meant that Stewart was by Fawcett's side up until her final days in 2009 at age 62. She remembers the late actress and artist as something along the lines of a kindred spirit.

"Right before she died, we were in the hospital and I said, 'You're like my sister,' and I've never had a sister. And I said, 'You're like the sister I've never had,' " Stewart remembers. "And she looked at me, and she was very weak at the time, and she said, 'More than a sister.' "

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Since Fawcett's death, Stewart has taken on the role of overseeing the foundation, which works to advance cancer research, prevention and public education, and will host its annual gala — one co-chaired by Stewart, Dallas star Linda Gray and Fawcett's Charlie's Angels costar, Jaclyn Smith — in Texas on Oct. 24, 2024.

As Mills explains, Fawcett's original goal was to run the foundation herself. “She didn't think she was going to die." she says. "She thought, you know, [she would] get cured and go on. She wanted to help people who were in the same situation that she was."

Stewart elaborates on Fawcett's goal with launching the foundation, which she hoped would "open people's eyes" to a form of cancer that was, at the time, taboo to publicly discus.

"Farrah said one thing to the doctor in Germany, and I'll never forget this," Stewart adds. "She said, 'I'm almost glad I got cancer because now I know I can make a difference.' It always gives me chills, because I remember her saying it, and I remember the doctor was kind of shocked. And she really did want to make a difference."

Stewart continues: "She realized what it was like. When we were filming the documentary, she would have me film things that I thought would be uncomfortable, and she would go, 'No, this is what cancer is. Let's break it open. Let's do it.' "

While her cancer eventually spread, leading to her death three years after her diagnosis, her legacy lives on — extending far beyond even the now-iconic image of the actress made famous in the 1970s.

"I miss her every day of my life, because she was my best friend," Stewart says of Fawcett, growing emotional. "I think, 'Oh God, I wish I could pick up the phone and talk to her about this.' Even at the height of her career ... when we did talk, it would usually be late at night and it would be for hours, just catching up for two hours on the phone or something. I miss talking to her."

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