Love Island star Demi Jones has candidly opened up about the moment she learned she had thyroid cancer – and the tears that fell in light of the news.
The 22-year-old TV star learned this month that she has the life-threatening disease, but has vowed to fight cancer, and win.
Demi – who starred on the first ever Winter Love Island back in January 2020 – learned the news with her mum at her side, but says she is keeping a positive outlook for the future.
Taking to Instagram Stories on Friday, the reality star explained that seeing a Macmillan Nurse waiting with her consultant left her bracing for bad news when getting a check up following surgery to remove a tumour from her neck.
She said: “Hey guys I just want to talk about my diagnosis that I had yesterday.
“I’ve never had such an immense reasons win my life… I’ve literally bee inundated with messages, I got so many messages. My phone blew up.
“All the love and support from the public, friends and family and people who I don’t even know showing so much love and kindness to me.
“I am sad, but I’m kind of in shock out of everything. It doesn’t even feel real that I’ve got cancer. It’s a weird thing.
“Everyone knows I had my operation three weeks ago to have the biopsy to see what it was
“I had my meeting with my consultant yesterday to see my results. As soon as I walked in, I saw the Macmillan nurse sat there and I knew straight away I had cancer before he even said anything because it’s usually just me and him in the room and I walk in and I saw the Macmillan nurse.”
The star went on to explain that she initially kept a stiff upper lip, but released her emotions once left alone with her mum.
She said: “When he was talking to me about it, I was being really strong and I was like listening ‘that’s fine’.
“As soon as I walked out of the room and it was just me and my mum, I cried.
“Even though I’m going to get trough this and I am going to be absolutely fine, it’s just I know that I’ve got to go through this journey now.”
She went on to explain how she was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer.
“I had this lump in my neck which I have been talking to you about and it turns out that was actually a tumour. So I’ve been living all these years with a tumour in my neck and I had no idea – which is so scary.
“I’ve had that operation to remove that half of the thyroid, and I need to have more surgery to remove more of the thyroid and I have to go for some iodine cancer treatment. And I also have some hormone tablets just to regulate my hormones because the thyroid actually controls your thyroid, which I didn’t know.”
She added: “It’s going to be a journey but I want to keep you updated to raise as much awareness as possible.”
And the star went on to vow she will remain “super positive” and she is looking forward to her upcoming birthday, on July 2nd, as something to look forward to.
Visit nhs.uk/conditions/throid-cancer to learn more about thyroid cancers, their symptoms, and available treatments.
