I’ll beat cancer vows TV Loose Woman Carol
LOOSE Women star McGiffin has revealed fighting breast cancer.
Carol told yesterday of having a mastectomy, six rounds of chemotherapy and 15 sessions of radiotherapy after finding a lump last February.
The 54- year- old panellist of the ITV show was diagnosed in April with an aggressive grade three tumour but now hopes her ordeal is over.
Carol said: “I knew from the moment I saw the doctor it was cancer. She seemed pretty shocked at the size of the lump.”
But she defiantly added: “I thought ‘ so what if I’ve got breast cancer? Thousands of women get it every year. I’ll get through this.”
She said it left her so selfconscious over her appearance that she refused to go out.
Two months into chemotherapy she lost her hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, leaving her looking like “humpty dumpty”.
Her hair has since regrown Carol she is
ordeal of x- ray expert
BREAST cancer screening expert Janet Hignett, 53, found she had a tumour after a routine test by her colleague and best friend Lynn Dooley.
After life- saving treatment she is back at work at Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital and helping an appeal for £ 150,000 for another mammography X- ray machine.
Lynn, 48, said: “Janet’s incredibly strong. I was amazed how she took it in her stride.” Janet said: “The care and support from friends, colleagues and family has been amazing.” and she hopes to grow it long and lighten it. She said: “I want to get back to the old me.”
The ex- radio presenter and former wife of DJ Chris Evans said her fiance Mark Cassidy, who is 21 years her junior, was her rock. She has been engaged to the TV production accountant for six years and they plan to marry next year after her reconstructive surgery.
“I think it has been tougher for Mark than it has been for me,” she said. “When my hair started falling out in clumps I thought there was no point in hanging on to it. So we bought a pair of clippers and Mark shaved it off.”
She said she kept her illness a secret at first from fellow Loose Woman Lynda Bellingham, who died of cancer last October aged 66.
Other panellists like Denise Welch knew about Carol’s battle and convinced her to tell Lynda the news. “Bellars said to me ‘******* hell! Not you an’ all.’ It broke the ice and she was laughing and joking with me.”
Former Celebrity Big Brother star Carol has had to cancel all her TV work.
She tweeted fans over the weekend acknowledging their support: “Thanks all for such lovely messages, I’m knocked out by the response to my news. But hopefully I’m OK now. Fingers crossed eh?”