Michaela Strachan: My tears over double mastectomy


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.
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Hide Ad“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.
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Hide AdBy 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.”