Nurse who got TV’s Sian Williams through her darkest hour
As the news presenter prepares to host our Inspirational Women of the Year Awards, she movingly salutes her own personal heroine
YOUR nominations have been pouring in. We’ve heard about amazing mothers, incredible charity campaigners and devoted carers.
We’ve heard about women who have turned trauma into triumph, women who’ve stepped in to act when everyone else turned away, and women who have refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.
But now there are only hours left for you to name the wonderful woman who has inspired you the most. She might be a doctor, a teacher, a businesswoman, a charity volunteer or simply your mum. nominations for our 2017 Inspirational Woman of the Year close at midnight tonight.
Five national finalists will be chosen to attend a black-tie charity awards gala dinner on Tuesday, October 3, hosted by TV presenter Sian Williams. The event is in support of YoungMinds, the UK’s leading charity committed to improving the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.
YoungMinds is one of eight UK charities that Heads Together, a campaign co-ordinated by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, has brought together.
‘This is a truly wonderful awards ceremony which I am hugely proud to be part of,’ says 52-year-old Sian, who ran the 2017 marathon in support of Heads Together and YoungMinds.
‘These women are totally aweinspiring and utterly humbling. They’re women who don’t look to be in the public eye and don’t ask for praise.
‘They are simply driven to act because they feel they have to — whether it’s setting up a charity or looking after people who need an awful lot of care.
‘In so many cases they have faced terrible adversity. But, instead of going under, they have turned their troubles into something positive to benefit others.
‘They’ve got that wonderful female bloody-mindedness. They are simply not going to listen to anyone who tells them: “You can’t do it.”
‘And they do it all without blowing their own trumpets. That’s another reason why these awards are so important. As women, we are inclined to downplay our achievements.
‘Over and over again, these women say they are nothing special — when the reverse is true. They are unsung heroines.’
One such person is nurse Shirley Day. It was Shirley, who is lead clinical nurse specialist at University College London Hospital’s breast clinic, who helped Sian through breast cancer, and this is the first time the presenter has talked publicly about the vital role the nurse played during her treatment.
‘She’s one of the most inspirational women I know,’ says Sian. ‘But you’ve probably never heard of her.
‘I met Shirley in november 2014 on what was one of the worst days of my life. It was the week after my 50th birthday, and I was sitting in the consultant’s room at UCLH being told that I had breast cancer and would need a double mastectomy.’
Sian hadn’t seen it coming. ‘I’d just been offered a new job, fronting Channel 5 news. Our family — my husband, Paul, and our two children, Seth, then nine, and eve, seven, were excited about moving from London to Kent. My stepdaughter, emily, 18, was just about to go to university, and my sons from my first marriage — Joss, 22, and Alex, 20 — were already there.
‘I was a regular runner who drank green tea and ate salmon. I thought I was healthy. So being told I had cancer seemed totally improbable. In fact, I was so relaxed that, when I went for the biopsy results, following a mammogram, I told Paul not to bother coming with me.
‘So there I was, alone, shocked and very scared. Shirley saw instantly what was happening. She came over, sat beside me and held my hand while the consultant talked to me about what she’d found and what it meant.
‘I had ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, cancer in the milk ducts. I learned later it was in both breasts.’
Shirley was by Sian’s side when she phoned her husband immediately afterwards. In fact, it was Shirley who broke the news.
‘As soon as I heard Paul’s voice, I couldn’t get the words out,’ Sian recalls. ‘Shirley gently took the phone from me.
‘It was such a bolt out of the blue for Paul. He was shocked, fearful and upset that he hadn’t been there to hear the news with me. Shirley understood all this and made him feel, with a few simple words, that everything
was going to be OK. Paul remembers it feeling as though someone was holding his hand through it all. ‘And that’s how it was for all the next weeks and months of treatment. Shirley showed me light at the end of the tunnel. She didn’t just keep me together — she kept our entire family together.’ After the surgery to remove her breasts, Sian says Shirley was with her when she took her first look.
‘She sat on the bed beside me as we peeled back the dressings. I saw a body I didn’t recognise — maimed and terribly fragile.
‘But even that awful moment, Shirley managed to turn into a positive — by reminding me that this was just a necessary stage before the reconstruction.
‘She told me: “I promise you won’t look like this for ever.” She was right, of course.
‘I’m lucky. My cancer was treatable and the months of surgery are now behind me. But I go back for check-ups every three months, and Shirley is always there to see me through.
‘She understands I’m going to be nervous, and that dark memories will come flooding back. And she always makes me laugh because, as all her patients know, when you’re with Shirley, nothing seems overwhelming.’
Sian believes this is one of the most remarkable things about this truly inspirational woman. ‘Being told I had cancer was one of the biggest, scariest things that had ever happened to me.
‘But every day Shirley deals with frightened cancer patients for whom this seems like the end of the world. And she manages to make each and every one of us feel cared for and protected.
‘And I know that, while Shirley is immensely special to me, she is one of a million nurses doing a difficult job day in, day out.’
WOMEN like Sian’s late mum, who was also a nurse. ‘Although Shirley is around my age (I’ve never asked her how old she is), she reminds me of my late mum, Kathy,’ Sian says. ‘Mum, who died of bowel cancer in november 2009 aged just 70, was a tiny woman — just 4ft 10in. But she worked in intensive care where she would heave people from bed to bed.
‘Like all good nurses, she had boundless reserves of patience and empathy.
‘Later in her career, she moved into dermatology, where she helped work on patch testing to pinpoint what was causing various skin conditions.
‘She became so expert that she lectured on the subject. But, like so many women, she would make light of her achievements. ‘It was only after her death that I realised the full impact of her work, when a couple of eminent dermatologists told me how wonderful she had been.
‘As well as nursing, she brought up three children while Dad was working all hours as a Fleet Street journalist.
‘And even when she was dying of bowel cancer, that care, compassion and devotion to duty never left her.
‘She was treated in eastbourne District Hospital — where she had worked for decades. I would be visiting when she would quietly call a nurse over.
‘She’d noticed someone required extra painkillers or needed cheering up because they didn’t have any visitors.
‘It was humbling to see her showing that same bedside manner, even when she herself was lying ill in bed.
‘And I know that — just like all the other inspirational women — if I’d ever told her just how much she inspired me, she’d have shrugged and said she was nothing special.
‘But the truth is that without these women, all our lives would be a great deal poorer.
‘They are there when we need them most — beacons of hope, touching more lives than they can probably ever imagine.’
Email us your nominations by midnight tonight to inspirational Women@dailymail.co.uk.