This Morning's Deidre Sanders reveals breast cancer has returned
1 October 2024, 12:45 | Updated: 1 October 2024, 12:51
This Morning's beloved agony aunt Deidre Sanders will undergo surgery later this month to remove the cancerous cells from her breast after a routine mammogram revealed the shocking diagnosis.
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Deidre Sanders, 78, has revealed that her breast cancer has returned, two years after her first diagnosis.
The agony aunt, best known for her role on This Morning, appeared on the hit show on Tuesday, 1st October, to reveal the shocking diagnosis to hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard.
She explained that while she had no symptoms, the cancer was found during her annual mammogram where malignant cells were detected, followed by an ultrasound scan and a biopsy revealing the diagnosis.
Now, she will undergo surgery in 10 days to remove the cancerous cells found in her breast.
Speaking on This Morning, Deidre said: "No I haven't had symptoms, I haven't felt run down. I haven't felt tired. I hadn't had any discomfort. If I did a self check I couldn't feel anything because it's so tiny there is nothing to feel.
"It's purely down to having the mammogram that showed it. And then you get referred back and I had a biopsy, and then it revealed it was cancer."
Deidre was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 after she was left off a list of women aged 70 invited to have mammograms. At the time, she joined former hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning to share her diagnosis.
She told them: "I think people panic at the word cancer often, and they can be scared of even going to a doctor with their initial worry because they're terrified of getting a diagnosis, even though getting the diagnosis is what leads to treatment. We can be so scared about that word so I am really happy to bring it out into the open."
Deidre was given the all-clear by doctors in October 2023, and told Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary at the time: "I'm really good, so I had this teeny, tiny cancer, which was spotted on a mammogram, I've had surgery, it's all out, it's gone."
Now, a year later, Deidre is facing another cancer battle, with a lumpectomy scheduled alongside radiotherapy, however, she is thankful that the cancer was discovered early and that she is being treated quickly.
Speaking this week on This Morning, Deidre explained: "It's a different breast, it's the left breast this time. There was a tiny, tiny, tiny, but malignant cancer in there so unfortunately I have got to have a lumpectomy followed by radiotherapy.
"But I am lucky, it has been caught early. The treatment is happening very rapidly. I should have surgery on October 11 which is in no time. This is all on the NHS. So I think I am so lucky. It could be a lot worse."
When asked how she felt when she found out about the cancer, Deidre said: "To be honest, shock. Because I felt fine. I was just so taken aback I just wasn't expecting it at all."
Going on to encourage women to go to their mammograms, she added: "My big point about this, and why I really want to talk about it is, breast checks, mammograms stop when you are 70.
"The last one you get is when you are 70. I happened to be part of a cohort of women who didn't get called. I hadn't had one since I was 66, so for ten years. I hadn't given it a thought.
"But what I now know is that if you are a woman over 70 you can request a mammogram. So please, request your mammogram. Because the reason why I've had quite an easy time is because it was caught so early."
She concluded: "If it's missed for years you are so much more likely to have to have a mastectomy."
