Agony aunt Deidre Sanders has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Sanders, 77, said her diagnosis came after an “error” meant she was not invited for a mammogram when she turned 70.
Speaking to The Sun, she said she began “feeling achy” last summer and realised she had a backache that “seemed to be spreading into my right breast”.
After setting up an appointment at the breast clinic at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, Sanders was put on the NHS two-week cancer pathway, a referral process for anyone suspected of having cancer.
After a mammogram and an ultrasound scan, a biopsy revealed malignant cells.
Sanders, who also spoke about her diagnoses on This Morning on Tuesday, said she is scheduled for surgery to remove the carcinoma on Saturday.
She told the paper that she had not had a screening for about 10 years, saying she was “among a cohort of several thousand women who, by error, did not get invited for a mammogram when they turned 70”.
The NHS automatically invites women for their first breast screening between the ages of 50 and 53. Women are then invited every 3 years until they turn 71.
Sanders said she had been invited for a screening “a couple of years later”, but had not taken up the offer, saying: “By then I reckoned I must be too old to need it any more as the NHS stops inviting you for a screening after that age. Hah!”
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Her cancer has been classified as “high-grade”, which means it has the potential to spread aggressively if not discovered early.
Although women over 71 can request a scan, no routine appointments will be automatically made. This is despite Cancer Research UK saying that every year, around a quarter of new breast cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed in people aged 75 and over.
Sanders said she is now be requesting screenings every three years and is urging women over the age of 70 to do the same. She is also encouraging women under that age bracket to have mammograms when they receive their invitations.
Sanders spent 40 years as The Sun’s agony aunt, providing a shoulder to cry on for readers who would approach her problem page with issues ranging from serious personal difficulties, relationship or sexual problems and family dilemmas.
Sanders retired from her newspaper role in December 2020.
She has been an agony aunt on ITV’s This Morning with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield since 2016. She has also published several books.
You must be registered with a GP surgery to be invited for breast screening.
The NHS website says that if you are a trans man, trans woman or are non-binary you may be invited automatically, or you may need to talk to your GP surgery or call the local breast screening service to ask for an appointment.
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenterposted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
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Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
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She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
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She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
Adele has bid a tearful farewell to her Las Vegas residency show, as the Someone Like You star admitted she doesn’t know when she’ll perform again next.
The British singer-songwriter, 36, launched Weekends with Adele at Caesars Palace in November 2022 and performed her 100th show there on Saturday.
Her mammoth run of sell-out shows at the venue, which seats around 4,000 people, has been a success but has taken its toll.