The Duchess of York endured an arduous eight-hour operation while surgeons battled breast cancer, it was revealed today.
It was revealed last week that Sarah Ferguson, 63, had been diagnosed with the disease and had undergone a successful single mastectomy at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London.
But The Mail on Sunday can today reveal the full extent of her grueling ordeal, including four days in the private hospital’s intensive care unit, where the Duchess was kept under 24-hour surveillance.
Last night, a friend of the Duchess, who is now back home, said: “The operation was very lengthy – it took eight hours – and it was more involved than people think.” The message she wants to convey today is that she is very grateful to those who saved her and feels very fortunate to be alive.
“In particular, the Duchess would like to thank the two incredible surgeons who performed the surgery, Christina Choy and Stuart James, and the entire medical team who worked tirelessly to help her.”
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, underwent surgery to treat breast cancer
The Mail on Sunday can today reveal the full extent of her grueling ordeal, including four days in intensive care at the private hospital where the Duchess was kept under 24-hour surveillance
The 63-year-old was diagnosed with the disease and successfully underwent a single mastectomy at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London
Last week, she told friends she faces a “long road” to recovery but is determined to “manage it.”
While she is recovering at home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, where she lives with her ex-husband Prince Andrew, she enjoys the full support of her family.
Their younger daughter, Princess Eugenie, has “just about moved in” to look after her mother, while sister Princess Beatrice is reportedly a frequent visitor and “is on the phone all the time”.
Andrew was on hand to help, and friends and family gathered to provide hot meals and run errands.
A Buckingham Palace source confirmed the king had also written to his former sister-in-law, sending him sincere wishes for a speedy recovery.
A palace insider said plans for the Yorks’ move from Royal Lodge to Frogmore Cottage, Harry and Meghan’s former home, have been “quietly put on hold” for the time being.
The Duchess’ cancer nightmare began less than two months ago when a routine pre-coronation test first revealed something seriously wrong.
In early May, Sarah attended an appointment for a mammogram in London. Instead of giving the all-clear as expected, the technician explained that a “shadow” could be seen in the chest.
A source close to the Duchess said: “Most people usually associate breast cancer with a lump, but that’s not always the case.”
The Duchess would like to thank the two incredible surgeons who performed the surgery, Christina Choy and Stuart James, and the entire medical team who worked tirelessly to help her
Pictured: Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie with their mother
Andrew was on hand to help, and friends and family gathered to provide hot meals and run errands
“A lump can be spotted by the patient, but that was a ‘shadow’ that can go undetected because it’s a larger spread of cancer cells that can be detected by the screening.” “In Sarah’s case, a biopsy was done taken from the shadowed tissue area and a few days later the results came back to confirm the diagnosis – breast cancer.”
Given the size of the area, a lumpectomy was ruled out and Sarah was strongly recommended to have a single mastectomy to remove the shadow of the cancer cells on her breast. Sarah was devastated but determined to have a mastectomy as soon as possible, telling friends she had “no choice” but to have the surgery.
Christina Choy was the surgeon who performed the mastectomy.
Upon completion, consultant plastic surgeon Stuart James, once hailed by Tatler magazine as one of the top breast surgeons in the country, performed the breast reconstruction using the “DIEP flap” technique. It so happens that Mr. James is known to Prince William.
In 2013, the heir to the throne visited an operating room at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, where Mr James explained the process of breast reconstruction. The special procedure is so complex that only highly qualified surgeons are allowed to perform it.
It involves making an incision in the abdomen and removing fat from the abdomen to form a new breast.
Experts say this can take more than six hours because it involves microvascular surgery, in which delicate 2mm blood vessels are severed and then reconnected.
But the duration of general anesthesia took its toll on Sarah Ferguson, whose vital signs were then monitored for four days in the intensive care unit.
Just a few days after being discharged from the hospital, she is said to be in “good spirits”. A friend said the Duchess joked that the nature of the reconstruction – removing excess fat from the abdomen to form a new breast – meant she would effectively benefit from a tummy tuck. They added: “Sarah even joked prior to the surgery that she’s looking forward to slimming down because she’ll have fat taken from her abdomen for breast reconstruction and that she’d start a healthy kick, eat right and exercise .”
“She said, ‘Soon we can go out together in white skinny jeans.’ Her strength in all of this has been an inspiration.”
The Duchess of York, whose stepfather Hector Barrantes died of lymphoma in 1990 at the age of 51, has long supported charities fighting the disease.
In November of that year she opened a special cancer unit at Middlesex Hospital in London for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Since then, Sarah has been a patron of the charity and attends almost all of the charity’s new openings. Over the years, her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, along with their mother, have supported the charity.
Sarah said both princesses spent their 18th birthdays visiting teenage cancer wards.
Sarah Ferguson revealed her own battle with cancer before her surgery on her podcast, saying: “I volunteered to work for the Teenage Cancer Trust … because my stepfather died of cancer.”
“He was a wonderful man. I adored him.’
A source said that after a period of recovery, the Duchess intended to “spread the word” and work to raise awareness of the importance of early cancer detection.
She told her podcast, “I’m telling people out there to get checked out.” Get checked out. Go do it. “I’m not just talking about breast cancer, I’m talking about all types of cancer.”