Hunniford praises journalist’s video diary of breast cancer as positive and invaluable
TV presenter Gl o r i a Hunniford has praised BBC journalist Victoria Derbyshire for her breast cancer video diary.
Hunniford lost her daughter Caron Keating in 2004 at the age of 41, after a sevenyear battle with breast cancer.
“I admire her enormously,” Hunniford said, “She’s a brave girl doing her video diary, I think it’s going to be invaluable to a lot of people watching it.
“She’s put forward a very positive message, and that’s the message I feel is coming through at the moment – that the drugs are better, people are surviving longer, people are managing it and living with it [breast cancer].”
Derbyshire spoke openly about having a mastectomy following a diagnosis with breast cancer, in an effort to reassure women that having treatment for the condition was “do-able”.
Hunniford was speaking ahead of hosting this year’s PINKTOBER gala, which will raise money for The Caron Keating Foundation.
She described working on the charity as “my healing”, saying: “If you weep until the second you die, you are never going to change anything, you are never going to bring her back, so go off and do something positive.”
Keating, who presented Blue Peter, had two young sons when she passed away.
“As a parent having lost a child, you are still used to going ‘there, there’ I’ll make it better, and you end up totally helpless,” she said.
“I would have taken the cancer for her, because she was a young girl with two lovely children, it just seemed so grossly unfair .”
She said having a month like October, which is dedicated to breast cancer awareness, was invaluable.
“I do feel figures improving and a more positive attitude settling in, but nevertheless the figures are too high – more than 50,000 women die every year of breast cancer.
“But it does highlight the need to know your breasts and know your body.”