Former Coronation Street actress Victoria Ekanoye has spoken out about her battle with breast cancer in support of Lorraine’s recent campaign – and revealed she found a second lump while filming Death in Paradise.
Lorraine Kelly will host a special edition of her talk show, where she will be joined by producer Helen Addis – campaign founder and breast cancer survivor – and some of the 60 women the campaign has helped save so far.
During the special, they all have a chance to fly in the Hot Air Boob alongside Coronation Street’s Victoria Ekanoye, who is supporting the campaign this year.
Fight: Former Coronation Street actress Victoria Ekanoye has spoken out about her breast cancer battle in support of Lorraine’s recent campaign – revealing she found a second lump while filming Death in Paradise
The actor, who played Angie Appleton in the soap, sadly found a lump while breastfeeding their baby son in 2021 and underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with ductal cancer at the same site.
The 40-year-old actress and singer, who Web exclusively revealed, described the fight as a “difficult time” because she booked herself to play Miranda Priestley on crime series Death in Paradise while waiting to be told by doctors about a… to hear diagnosis.
“I had to fly to Guadeloupe and I took my son and my mother with me,” she explained. “While I was out there, I found a second bump, so that was the moment for me. I remember being on set and wanting to move on.
“I had to take a few minutes and put it in the back of my mind and have a little conversation with myself — ‘You can handle it. Go out and do your job!” When we came back – we actually came back to England in September – and at that point I went to the GP because I know there is an amazing service called the One Stop Breast Clinic.
Feeling better now: The actor, who played Angie Appleton in the soap, sadly found a lump while breastfeeding their baby son in 2021 (pictured in September)
“Basically if you’re symptomatic, whatever the symptoms may be, you get an appointment and you’ll be seen within two weeks.
“I had a physical by the breast nurse and then a needle test in my armpit, I had mammograms, I also had biopsies in the mammogram – so they took samples from both lumps – and I had ultrasounds on the day of Well, so I was overall about four hours there. I would not have expected this.
“I’m so grateful and at the end of the day I saw the breast consultant. And she said, “Look, I want to be honest with you. It concerns me what we see, but obviously we have to send everything in for rehearsals, so you can come back next week – we’ll meet with the chief adviser and bring someone.”
“And my family has heard that a lot, so I knew it had to be something.”
She explained that at that point, regardless of what she found, she made the decision to have a double mastectomy: “Because I didn’t risk it coming back in the other breast or the same breast — and already with the risk in the.” Family.”
She said she had a family history of breast cancer, which made her realize she might have a higher chance of getting it: “I’m now the fifth person in my family over three generations to have breast cancer. And before me there was no evidence of a gene mutation – the BRCA gene that you have.
Baby love: The soap star revealed she had DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) in November last year when her son (pictured together in February) was just six months old
“Since then I’ve had some tests – I’m now part of the Family History Clinic. I went to the geneticist and he went through everything with me. And it turns out I have the mutation.
“There are so many different reasons why you can be susceptible to cancer, but I have a mutation in the gene and that would have given me a higher chance of developing breast cancer.
“So now my whole family has to look for this gene, including my partner, because if he has another gene, for example, that combination could be dangerous for Theo.
Saving lives: Lorraine Kelly (right) hosts a special edition of her talk show where she is joined by producer Helen Addis (centre) and Dr. Hillary (left) is accompanied.
“I guess you finish the surgery feeling like at that point hopefully that’s all you have to worry about, but then you realize after testing the tissue that it’s actually started to become invasive and itself.” moves around your body.
“So now you have to take the meds and on top of that we have to get checks for the rest of the family, even our son.
“The frustrating thing about my type of breast cancer is that it accounts for only 1 percent of all breast cancer cases, so they had to ship my tissue to the States to be tested and so there was a lot of waiting time.
“Ultimately, having people in my family who have had breast cancer and cancer in general — and then also, I think, being a Prevent Breast Cancer patron — also made a big difference, because I know a lot about the discussions about the campaigns that we’ve been doing because you know the facts and all the stats come out and you learn a lot about them.
“And being able to talk to other people, and all the messages I get from other people who have either had breast cancer themselves or some type of cancer, or just friends or family members who are going through it and are having trouble understanding how they might be feeling – all this information I can give you is what I learned.
“Well, I think even before I had breast cancer myself, I was doing it in every way I could to help people. I guess just because I was very aware of that, I got that third opinion.
“And I’m so glad I did because I don’t know where we would be now.”
She continued: “You only have one body – we can’t order another one from Amazon for next day delivery! There’s nothing we can do about it and we just have to treat our bodies like we only have one.”
Stunning: Walking the red carpet at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in May, the actress looked happy and healthy as she posed for snaps