This Morning presenter Deidre Sanders has revealed that she has breast cancer.
The 77-year-old agony aunt for the ITV programme and The Sun shared that she received her diagnosis after not having a mammogram for nearly 10 years.
Writing about her experience in The Sun, Sanders said she will undergo surgery to remove the cancerous cells from her right breast this weekend.
She also urged women to get their breasts checked regularly and not to skip their breast-screening appointments.
Sanders also revealed she was among thousands of women who did not receive an invite for a mammogram when they turned 70 due to “error”.
Her journey towards a diagnosis began in the summer, when she had a back ache that “seemed to be spreading into my right breast”.
“I must have let at least a month pass while I wondered, ‘Is it anything to worry about?’,” she wrote in The Sun.
After setting up an appointment at the breast clinic at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, Sanders was put on the NHS two-week cancer pathway, a referral process for anyone suspected of having cancer.
Ten days later, she had a mammogram and ultrasound scan. Later, after a holiday, she was booked in for a biopsy, which revealed the cells were malignant.
When asked by the consultant when her last mammogram was, Sanders wrote: “The answer was nearly 10 years, because I happen to be among a cohort of several thousand women who, by error, did not get invited for a mammogram when they turned 70.
“We were offered it a couple of years later, but by then I reckoned I must be too old to need it any more as the NHS stops inviting you for a screening after that age. Hah!”
Sander’s cancer has been labelled as “high-grade”, which means it has the potential to spread aggressively if not discovered early.
On Tuesday’s This Morning programme, Sanders will be sharing her story and plans to urge all women to go for breast screenings when invited.
She will also urge women over 70 to “use their right to request screening every three years”.
