Boris ex’s plea for smear tests after cancer surgery
MARINA Wheeler, the estranged wife of Boris Johnson, has urged women to make time for screening as she revealed she has been treated for cervical cancer.
The 54-year-old lawyer, who filed for divorce from Johnson last September after 25 years of marriage, underwent two operations after a smear test in January found abnormal cells.
She now considers herself “cancer-free”.
Ms Wheeler told how her four children and sister Shirin supported her throughout the treatment.
The QC said that she had no symptoms but found out she had the disease at Whittington Hospital in north London.
She was immediately sent to the gynae-oncology unit at University College Hospital.
Ms Wheeler was forced to cancel a trip to Russia to undergo the surgery. She also delayed the publication of her book The Last Homestead, a memoir about her mother’s life and the partition of India.
Speaking of her reaction to the diagnosis, she said: “I left thinking, ‘That’s absurd. I have no time for this. Quite apart from everything else I have a book to write’.”
Ms Wheeler told how after one operation she developed surgical emphysema, in which bubbles of air become trapped under the skin and “puffed up like a balloon”.
She said that although she has “lost some key anatomical bits”, they “had no further use. And that is fine.”
She added: “In this age, in the place we live, we are defined much less by our desire or ability to reproduce.
“Why would we be, when there is so much more?” She said she chose to speak out about her brush with cancer to encourage more women to use screening services.
Attendance at cervical smear tests is at its lowest in two decades in England and, in some areas, only half of young women regularly get checked.
She said: “I know the take-up of smear tests is way down. I know they can save your life.
“If people are willing to listen – as they seem to be – why not say so? Why be afraid?
“I would urge other women to make the time and do the tests.”
She added that the experience had made her appreciate “the incalculable value of holding close those who you love and trust”.