Breakfast TV’s Sian in breast cancer battle
FORMER BBC Breakfast host Sian Williams has revealed for the first time that she has had a double mastectomy after a fight with breast cancer.
Speaking publicly about her shock diagnosis, the 51-year-old said reconstruction after her surgery had taken longer than she expected.
Despite a family history of cancer, the mother-of-four said she and her husband Paul Woolwich never expected she would get it herself because she ‘did all the right things’ to minimise the risk.
In a candid interview with Woman & Home magazine to publicise her new book, Rise: Surviving And Thriving After Trauma, she said: ‘The week after my 50th birthday I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
‘I thought I was healthy. I did all the right things – I was a green tea drinker, a salmon eater, a runner.
‘So being told I had cancer seemed so improbable that when I went for the results of a biopsy, following a mammogram, I didn’t even ask Paul to come because I just assumed it was routine.’
Miss Williams, who presented BBC Breakfast for 11 years and now anchors 5 News on Channel 5, said her ‘biggest fear’ ‘was not being there as a mum – and for some unfathomable reason I couldn’t stop thinking that I want to be here for my daughter Evie to watch her get married’.
She added: ‘My aunt died of breast cancer, and I’d lost my mum to liver and bowel cancer – and I gradually began to realise how bewildered and scared I was.’
She said she went to great lengths to keep her cancer secret, adding: ‘Nobody knew I’d had the operation apart from the children’s teacher.
‘I’d go and pick them up with these big drain bottles dangling down, which I’d try to hide with my coat.’ She also had ‘furious rows’ with Mr Woolwich, a 64-year-old TV producer, because she struggled to discuss her feelings.
She said: ‘I was horrible to Paul at times because I was so intent on being strong that I didn’t feel I could share my fears with him.
‘He never knew if I was “strong capable Sian” or if I needed help, which was very confusing for him. And we had some really explosive moments and furious rows as a result.’
But she said she slowly came to terms with being vulnerable and learned to accept help.
She added: ‘Paul is an extraordinary man. I’ve learned I need to let him know if I need support, or an outstretched hand to help me up.
‘I discovered there’s a strength in letting myself be vulnerable. I allowed myself to say, “Today I feel less like a TV presenter and more like a cancer patient – and that’s OK”.’
Having initially blocked out the news that she had cancer, Miss Williams, who is a trained trauma psychologist who helps journalists with post-traumatic stress disorder, sought advice from trauma victims to help her come to terms with it.
She said: ‘Being someone who is used to locking difficult feelings up, slamming down the lid and throwing away the key, that was the hardest thing to do.
‘But I realised it’s the first step in working out what matters, and what doesn’t. Being ill showed me parts of myself that I really didn’t like.’
In her interview with the magazine, which is published in the July issue next week, she said that the process of writing a book about her experience made her realise that there was ‘an Old Sian and a New Sian’.
She said: ‘“New Sian” is more forgiving – of other people, but mainly of myself. I’m kinder, more accepting and more willing to learn from things that are difficult.
‘I’m more forgiving of my body. I have a caesarean scar, and these scars are just like that; scars you carry from previous experiences. In the same way you have to acknowledge previous traumas, you have to acknowledge that scars are a part of your body.
‘I look at my body and I think, “You’re bloody lucky you’re here, Sian”.’
Miss Williams moved from BBC Breakfast to Radio 4 in 2012. She co-presented the Saturday Live radio programme and hosted The Sian Williams Interview Show on BBC1 the following year.
She then presented BBC One’s ethical debates show Sunday Morning Live from June 2014 until joining 5 News in November last year.
Her secrecy about her operation comes in stark contrast to the way in which BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire handled her cancer diagnosis.
In August last year, Miss Derbyshire announced she had the disease and would be having a mastectomy.
The 47-year-old mother of two, who presents a daily current affairs show on BBC2 and the News Channel, and has previously worked on Radio 5 Live, continued to host her programme during her treatment and posted films about it and her recovery.
‘The hardest thing to do’