So Sex And The City 2 premiered this week to much hype, SJP hysteria and mixed reviews.

I’ve already booked in to see it twice next week and I’m pretty sure I’ll love every minute regardless of the plot. The fact is I will always have a massive soft spot for SATC…

A friend from Holland, who has never seen Sex And The City, recently asked me what a ‘SATC girl’ was. He’d googled it and come up with this rather derogatory explanation from Urban Dictionary. To his amusement this made me very indignant. “It’s about so much more than that,” I snapped. “It’s not just about sex, it’s about friendship and empowerment.”

Indeed Pauline Gacanja from the Onlocation Sex And The City tour in New York hit the nail on the head. “Women can relate to all the problems Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha have been through,” she told me recently. “The show is also an ideal view of what we would like our lives to be like - as in the end things always seem to work out for the girls and we all want that to happen to us. We seek that kind of bond with our friends.”

In this month’s Cosmopolitan I had the pleasure of writing an article called ‘Not Just Any Doorstep’ which features interviews with several SATC girls about their individual pilgrimages to Carrie’s stoop.

They include Claire Briston who was inspired to study fashion by the show and Lindsay Forschner who’s husband proposed to her on the SATC tour. Aww! Go buy the June issue of Cosmo now!

Anyhoo, I thought it would be interesting to share some of the other touching SATC stories I found along the way…

I beat cancer and celebrated surviving…

Mai-Linh Strauch, 34, is from Visalia, in California, USA and works in retail sales. She says:

‘When I visited Carrie’s stoop in 2006 I’d had an awful few years leading up to it. First my father was put in a wheelchair by a drunk driver and nine months later he died of cancer.

Then I was diagnosed with cervical cancer myself at the age of 26 and had to have a radical hysterectomy. I also helped care for my grandmother who was suffering from dementia.

In late 2005 my best friend Tabitha heard that my favorite singer Harry Connick Jr would be starring on Broadway so we planned a trip.

I was pretty beaten down by life and hadn’t done anything for myself since before my Dad’s death. But the NY trip was a rebirth. It was a chance to be independent again and to experience the most exciting city in the world. The minute I stepped foot on NY soil I felt so alive. I was invigorated by the city. For the first time in years I felt happy and worry-free.

For Tabitha and I, Carrie Bradshaw epitomized New York City and I’d beaten cancer just like Samantha. Walking in their footsteps in Greenwich and Manhattan was a revelation and the perfect way to celebrate coming out on the other side of everything I’d experienced.’

I battled anorexia and celebrated new beginnings…

Melinda Hutchings, 35, lives in Sydney, Australia, and is an author and motivational speaker. She says:

‘My friends say that out of all the SATC characters I’m most like Charlotte. In truth, I secretly feel more of an affinity with Carrie - underneath her sassy demeanour, Carrie has heart and spirit. She’s a true friend and although most of the time she’s unlucky in love, she keeps moving forward.

New York is a very special place for me, largely influenced by Carrie and Sex and The City, but my love affair with the city of my heart runs deep.

I battled anorexia during my teens and it was a desperately lonely time where I felt misunderstood, confused and tormented by destructive thoughts that consistently plagued me. Recovery was a long, slow and frustrating process marred by several relapses. It was also a difficult time for my family as they watched me helplessly wrestle my way through my illness.

When I was small I loved watching American TV shows and dreamed about travelling there one day. Part of my recovery journey was about creating goals so I had something to strive for and one was to travel to New York. I held this dream close to my heart as I garnered my inner strength and fought to save my own life.

Thankfully by the time I was 20 I was well into recovery and started to rebuild my life, mend relationships and figure out who I was. I felt consumed with an urgent need to embrace life and make up for the years of darkness and heartache anorexia had snatched from me.

I never lost sight of my dream to go to New York and when Sex and The City came along in 1998 my yearning intensified.

Then in December 1999 my dream came true. I travelled with my husband to New York and we arrived on Christmas Eve. We spent a glorious ten days exploring New York and it was magical. I promised myself that I’d return as soon as possible - and I did regularly.

Then in early 2007 the unimaginable happened. My marriage ended and I was thrust into darkness and pain as I struggled to come to terms with rebuilding my life and braving the future alone.

During that time, I often thought about New York and how the dream of going there during my recovery from anorexia had been a significant goal, something to strive for, to look forward to, to hope for.

I spent evenings watching reruns of Sex and The City and during a particularly dark period when I spent days on end crying under my duvet, I made myself a promise. No more being a victim.

A voice inside my head said “What are you waiting for? Go and book a trip to New York!” I climbed out of bed, made a beeline for my laptop and did it.

In September 2007, as my plane landed at JFK, my eyes filled with tears as joy and anticipation coursed through me. The feeling of being back in New York was like coming home.

The next day I ventured to The Village and found Carrie’s stoop. As I climbed the stairs and sat down I remembered Carrie’s words in the final scene of Sex and The City: “The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself.”

I made the decision that this was the beginning of the rest of my life. My journey through recovering from my marriage break up had brought me to Carrie’s stoop where I had an epiphany: if I trust in myself, listen to my inner wisdom and go forth with blind faith, the rest would fall into place.’

Click here to read more about Melinda

Sex And The City helped me to LIVE my life…

Sunny Patel, 34, is a journalist from London. She says:

‘Growing up in the Midlands I’d always dreamed of working in a high-powered city like London. I wanted the city life, to meet new people, be a regular at the opera house, museums, galleries and theatres – and have the culinary delights of the globe at my disposal. But I was held back by a variety of reasons including guilt and lack of confidence - and I allowed myself to be.

I’ve always loved SATC and I used to watch at least an episode a night and even started making my own notes. Seeing the escapades of Carrie and co made me realise I could no longer stay and live the life others wanted me to - just the way Carrie felt before leaving NY for Paris with Alexander Petrovsky.

I needed fresh, new challenges at work - and to breathe freely. So when the opportunity to become a lobby journalist at the Houses of Parliament presented itself, I had to grab it with both hands. The prospect of leaving behind everything familiar was daunting, and while things didn’t go quite to plan for Carrie, I have never had a single regret. And I have never felt more happier, or alive, at home.’

I went on a Sex And The City pilgrimage on my Honeymoon!

Amanda Moran, 33, is from Middlesborough and works as a librarian. She says:

‘I knew my husband Dave was the one for me when he’d sit and patiently watch SATC episodes with me. It takes a certain sort of guy to be comfortable with such a girly programme but he’d happily watch it because I liked it.

I always joke that he’s my ‘Steve’ - down-to-earth and upfront about his feelings.

I’d first started watching SATC when I was single and living in London and felt that in many ways it mirrored my own life. Then after I met Dave, working with the Prince’s Trust, he suggested a holiday to New York.

While we were there we took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around Central Park and en-route Dave proposed! Then he took me to Tiffany’s to chose the ring! It was completely perfect.

We got married in November 2007 and it seemed fitting to return to the Big Apple for our Honeymoon.

Five days in I told Dave that I really wanted to go on the Sex And The City tour so he duly came along with me. He was the only straight man there but seeing as he knew all the storylines I think he secretly quite enjoyed it – even posing on Carrie’s stoop with me. As he smiled at me I felt happy and excited and took a moment to wonder what the future might hold. A month later I discovered I was pregnant! We now have a little boy called Max.’

* The June issue of Cosmopolitan is out now. To find out more about the Sex And The City tour click here.

* So what does SATC mean to you? Please add your comment below…