'I'm A Celeb's Victoria Derbyshire: I thought I would die after cancer diagnosis

I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!’s Victoria Derbyshire has confessed she believed her life was over when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer.

The 52-year-old BBC newsreader and journalist was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and underwent a mastectomy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

She opened up to EastEnders actor Jessica Plummer, 28, as they shared the shower at the I’m A Celeb camp in Gwrych Castle in north Wales, admitting that she struggled to talk to her husband, Mark Sandell, after her initial diagnosis.

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Derbyshire revealed: “We could barely speak, you know. We could barely speak to each other. We are talkers, we are open, and we just had no words because honestly all I was thinking was, ‘I'm going to die. Seriously, I'm going to die’.

“And then, I thought I'm not going to see my boys grow up, I'm not going to grow old with Mark. I mean it was just, I just thought my luck's run out."

The couple are parents to sons Oliver, 16, and Joe, 13.

Plummer quizzed Derbyshire on how she first noticed there was something wrong.

The journalist revealed: “So I was going to bed on a Sunday night and getting undressed in the bathroom, I think I'd had a bath, and I just looked in the mirror and my right breast was about two inches lower than my left."

Derbyshire went on: “I knew that wasn't how I normally looked. Not only that, the nipple had become inverted so it was as though someone was pulling it backwards, do you know what I mean? Honestly, I thought, ‘Och, that looks weird, oh, I'll just sort that tomorrow.’ I did not think anything. I didn't.

"And five days later it was confirmed that it was breast cancer.”

The Lancashire-born broadcaster added: “It was all over. It was disparate. It wasn't a lump. It was like, how would I describe it... if you had loads of string all messed up it was like that, sort of long bits, it was all over the place. It wasn't a solid lump which is why you need all that chemo and then targeted radiotherapy."

Derbyshire said: “It's so important because most women think you're looking for a lump, actually you're not, you’re looking for your... - your breasts looking different to how they normally look. Do you know what I mean?

"But it you get it early, it's totally doable. You will survive."

The two women shared a hug and Deryshire told Plummer: “Thank you for doing that Jess. Thank you for asking very sensitive questions.”

Earlier Derbyshire had shared with her fellow celebrity campmates that the happiest moment in her life was when she married Sandell in 2018 - having been walked down the aisle by her sons, after beating breast cancer.

She said: “Two years ago having got through cancer treatment, with Oliver on one side age 14, and Joe on the other side, age 11, holding their hands and they walked me up the aisle and there was Mark at the top of it. That’s my happiest moment.”

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This year’s I’m A Celebrity contestants include Olympic athlete Sir Mo Farah, 37, ex-EastEnder Shane Richie and former Corrie star Beverley Callard.

On Friday night paralympic javelin thrower Hollie Arnold became the first celebrity to be evicted from the ITV reality show.

Watch: Victoria Derbyshire recall her infamous slip of the tongue referring to Jeremy Hunt