Michaela Strachan: My tears over double mastectomy

TELEVISION presenter Michaela Strachan has revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Springwatch presenter Michaela Strachan was found to have cancer early this year. Picture: UNP

The Springwatch host said she was forced to have both breasts removed after the cancer was found by a mammogram at the start of the year.

In a magazine interview yesterday, Strachan, 48, said “the tears started to roll” after her doctor told her of the devastating diagnosis.

“My doctor tried to tell me what would happen next, but I only took in every fifth word or so,” she said. “The only word that registered was ‘cancer’. How had this happened? I don’t have it in my family. I live a fit and healthy life.”

Her surgeon recommended the popular BBC presenter have a double mastectomy to prevent the lobular cancer spreading from one breast to the other.

Strachan said: “I couldn’t get my head around the fact that on Monday morning I’d been apparently healthy, by Tuesday I had cancer and by Wednesday I was talking about a double mastectomy.”

The wildlife presenter lives in South Africa with partner Nick Chevallier, his three grown-up children and their son Ollie, nine. Two weeks after the operation she flew back to the UK to film an episode of 
ITV game show Big Star’s 
Little Star.

By May she was well enough for three weeks of Springwatch filming in Suffolk with co-presenters Chris Packham and Martin Hughes-Games.

Strachan, who is now an ambassador for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, stressed the importance of regular mammogram screening.

“If I’d put mine off, my story could have been a very different one,” she said.

“As it is, I’ve had a tough year and an emotional journey, but I’m not fighting for my life.”