'This Morning' agony aunt Deidre Sanders reveals cancer diagnosis after missed mammogram
This Morning agony aunt Deirdre Sanders has revealed she has breast cancer - after missing a routine mammogram.
The 77-year-old TV star - who made her name writing The Sun's agony aunt column Dear Deidre since the 1980s - has been diagnosed with aggressive ductal carcinoma and is due to undergo surgery to remove the malignant cells on Saturday 1 October.
Sanders explained: "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.
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"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."
But after suffering back pain the agony aunt visited her GP and was quickly referred for a mammogram and ultrasound scan through the NHS within two weeks.
She said: "I tend to have tense shoulders but I realised the ache 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? Is it just muscular? I am 77, after all, is it just the aches and pains of getting older?'
"I finally got round to calling our GP practice a fortnight before I was due to go on holiday. She saw me in person that afternoon, thought she could feel a difference in the right breast and put me on the NHS two-week cancer pathway."
Sanders is now urging other women to make sure they attend their routine mammograms.
The TV star said: "I think people panic at the word cancer often and they can be scared of even going to a doctor with their initial worry because they're terrified of getting a diagnosis even though getting the diagnosis is what leads to treatment.
"We can be so scared about that word so I am really happy to bring it out into the open."
Sanders retired from writing the Dear Deidre column in 2020 and was replaced by Sally Land.
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She still appears regularly on This Morning answering calls from viewers about their problems.
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