Agony aunt Deidre Sanders reveals her breast cancer has returned as she urges This Morning viewers to get checked
AGONY aunt Deidre Sanders has revealed her breast cancer has returned two years after she was first diagnosed.
The Sun's retired agony aunt, who helped solve readers' sex and relationship problems for more than 40 years, told of her "shock" diagnosis today and said that she felt "lucky" that it had been found quickly.
She told This Morning hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard that she had no symptoms and malignant cells were detected through her scheduled mammogram followed by an ultrasound scan and a biopsy.
Deidre, 78, 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."
The beloved agony aunt said she will have surgery in 10 days to remove the cancerous cells that were found in her other breast.
Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease in the UK with 56,000 cases per year and 12,000 deaths.
Deidre's first diagnosis in 2022 came after an "error" saw her left off a list of women aged 70 who had not been invited to have their mammograms.
Speaking to The Sun at the time, she said she began "feeling achy" and realised she had a backache that "seemed to be spreading into my right breast".
The NHS invites women to have their first screenings between the ages of 50 and 53.
They are then invited back every three years for a screening until they reach 70.
Deidre went on to explain that she is now invited back every year because of her previous cancer diagnosis.
She said: "So because I had breast cancer two years ago I now get an annual mammogram.
"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."
Asked what went through her mind when she found out, she said: "To be honest, shock.
"Because I felt fine. I was just so taken aback I just wasn't expecting it at all."
Deidre urged viewers over 70 to request their mammograms because "time is of the essence".
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.
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"So please, request your mammogram. Because the reason why I've had quite an easy time is because it was caught so early.
"If it's missed for years you are so much more likely to have to have a mastectomy."