Susanna Reid, 52, reveals she had a ‘stressful’ mammogram appointment after ignoring
Susanna Reid has revealed she had a ‘stressful’ mammogram appointment after putting off the check-up and ignoring her reminder letter due to fear.
The presenter, 52, told co-host Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday she had finally gone to hospital for the scan after hearing Sarah Ferguson’s pleas for women to go to the routine test.
In June, Sarah, 63, announced she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has undergone a successful single mastectomy at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London.
Susanna described how she plucked up the courage to go to the scan as Sarah Beeny, 51, appeared on the show to talk about her breast cancer battle.
‘I did go for mammogram that do you remember we were talking about Sarah Ferguson and she had urged everybody to go and do it,’ Susanna said.
Susanna Reid has revealed she had a ‘stressful’ mammogram appointment after putting off the check-up due to fear
In June, Sarah Ferguson, 63, announced she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has undergone a successful single mastectomy at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London
‘I was really resistant to it and then there was a big a row wasn’t there that some health authorities weren’t sending regular reminders. I remembered that there had been a letter somewhere and so I did it.’
Ed asked if she found the experience stressful, to which Susanna described how things didn’t start off smoothly as she left her phone in the car.
She said: ‘Do you know what? It was slightly stressful because our lovely editor Daniel drove me there and then I left my mobile phone in the car. And then I felt stressed because I didn’t have my mobile phone.
Then I had to go up to someone else in the waiting room to ask them if I could possibly send an email from their mobile phone to the programme secretary to see if she could contact… anyway the point I was completely distracted.
‘Thank you Daniel for driving me to my mammogram. I went in the nurse was absolutely lovely.’
Susanna said she was expecting the scan to be ‘far, far worse’ as she urged others to not put it off like she did.
She said: ‘The least bit painful or uncomfortable I was expecting it to be far, far worse. The results came within a few weeks and it came all clear.’
The Duchess of York’s cancer scare began in early May when a routine test first detected something was seriously wrong before the Coronation.
Important: The presenter, 52, told co-host Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday she had finally gone to hospital for the scan after hearing Sarah Ferguson’s pleas
Sarah attended an appointment in London for a mammogram. Rather than being given the all-clear, as expected, the technician explained that a ‘shadow’ could be seen in the breast.
Given the size of the area, a lumpectomy was ruled out and Sarah was strongly advised to go ahead with a single mastectomy, which would eradicate the shadow of cancerous cells across the breast.
Sarah was said to be devastated but determined to press ahead with a mastectomy as soon as possible, telling friends she had ‘no choice’ but to go through with the operation.
The Duchess endured a punishing eight-hour operation as surgeons battled breast cancer.
During the discussion with her co-host Sarah Thomson, Fergie questioned whether having a ‘a body part cut off’ was something she needed ‘in order to wake up?’.
‘Not because of seeing death but waking up to stop worrying, stop self-hatred, stop self-doubt, stop all these things. Stop not liking yourself…’ she said.
After Sarah questioned if it had ‘taken that’ to get to a more confident place, Fergie said: ‘Yes, it did in my case’.
She said that since her life after the operation, her self-esteem had been transformed.
She explained: ‘You’ve got an enormous scar, but you like yourself….You like yourself a lot.’
‘You’ve got a badge of office, you just are what you are, and… of course the last thing that the Queen said to me [was]: ‘Just be yourself Sarah’.
‘And she saw it. She just got so annoyed when I wasn’t being myself. And that’s probably when I got into all the pickles.
‘But now I am myself and I’m just so lucky to be able to be myself.’
She continued: ‘I’m very lucky that my sister sent me to the mammogram because that was something which saved my life.’
The Duchess also spoke about how she had recovered since the operation, saying her reconstructed breast ‘Derek’ was doing ‘very well.’
She said she had started to return to a more active lifestyle over the summer, including walking while holidaying in Scotland to keep in shape as ‘at 63, you do need to do exercise.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called ‘invasive’. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.
Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000