Duchess of York vows to stay ‘super strong’ as she fights breast cancer
The Duchess of York made an impassioned plea for people to be screened for cancer after she was diagnosed with the disease.
In a “Tea Talks” podcast recorded the day before she underwent a single mastectomy, she vowed to remain positive.
The Duchess, 63, was told she had breast cancer following a routine mammogram.
“It doesn’t matter if you feel fine. Cancer can be so silent,” she said.
“Go get screened, go and get checked. Don’t wait.”
She recalled a conversation with her sister in Australia when she mentioned that she was due to have a test.
It was easy to put the test off, but her sister was insistent.
“She said ‘go, I need you to go’,” the Duchess added.
The test entailed being injected with a dye, which shows doctors where to go in the body.
Without the injection, the cancer would not have been discovered.
“It was only a shadow, they wouldn’t have... found out that there is an issue.”
She paid tribute to the nurses and doctors at the hospital who treated her.
The disease runs in the Duchess’s family including her father, Major Ronald Ferguson, who had prostate cancer. Her stepfather, Hector Barrantes, was only 51 when he died of cancer.
The family tragedies inspired the Duchess to become involved with cancer charities, a commitment which has lasted over three decades.
Relieved that the cancer was caught early, she vowed to make the most of life and become “super fit”.
She added: “I have to go through this operation, and I have to be well and strong. And therefore, no choice is the best choice.
“I’m going to go out there and get super, super well – super strong.
“If I have to shout about this from the top of the mountains then I’ll shout out because I think it’s vital everybody gets screened, not just breast cancer, prostate, all the checks.”
The Duchess has been resting at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, which she shares with the Duke of York, after spending several days at King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London.
