TV legend Anne Diamond yesterday revealed she has breast cancer and has undergone a double mastectomy. The 68-year-old fought back tears as she confirmed she was battling the disease in an interview on GB News last night.
Speaking to Dan Wootton on the channel, she recalled how she was given the news by doctors on the same day she was awarded an OBE and said it had been ‘a hell of a journey’. Anne, who works for GB News, has been off air for almost six months and is still undergoing ‘tough’ treatment for the illness, including radiotherapy.
Despite this she is set to return to work on Saturday to host Breakfast with Stephen Dixon. Speaking on Dan Wootton Tonight, Anne said it had been a ‘fight’ and after five months ‘I’m still not at the end of the journey, but I’m through it enough to come back to work’.
The morning TV legend, who rose to fame presenting TV-am from 1983 to 1990 and has been a regular panellist on The Wright Stuff and Jeremy Vine, was given the diagnosis the same day she was told she was getting an OBE.
Anne said: ‘It was a wonderful moment [being told about the OBE] and that was [at] 9.30 in the morning.
But I knew then, because I’d already seen my GP, that I had to go to a breast cancer screening thing later in the morning. I thought I would just go for a mammogram, and a couple of tests and I’d be free in an hour.
‘I spent the entire morning at my local hospital where they did everything, biopsies, X-rays, CT scans, a couple of mammograms, everything, and by lunchtime I was still there. And a lovely lady came with a lanyard around her neck that said MacMillan Cancer Care and I knew then it was serious.’ The mother-of-five revealed she is still undergoing ‘tough’ treatment after taking months off work to focus on fighting cancer.
She added: ‘I don’t have any advice for people because I’m still going through it. But I’m well enough to return to work. I had the full works, the full mastectomy. God, this is the first time I’ve talked about it, so it’s quite difficult but I’ve had the full works. The first operation I had was nine hours long.
‘I don’t remember it. I was in and out like that, but nine hours of removal and rebuild, that took a lot of getting over and then I had an operation later where they took out lymph nodes as well, just to make sure they can trace the travel, if the cancer has travelled at all to the rest of the body. Luckily I don’t think it did. I’ve had a load of radiotherapy, which I found very hard too.
‘So it’s been a journey, but I’m not pretending for a minute that I am extraordinary, because I am fully aware that a quarter of women in this country are going through what I’ve just gone through and I don’t have any advice to give. I only have empathy.
Source: People
In other news – Photos -South African DJs TxC Visit White House in The US
Tarryn and Claire of TxC had a tour of the White House located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The South African DJs enjoyed every moment at the white house as seen in photos shared on social media.
In May, the duo announced their world tour, and the US is part of the countries mentioned. Just like other Amapiano musicians, Tarryn and Claire aim at pushing Amapiano to the world. Learn more
