This Morning's agony aunt Deidre Sanders has breast cancer

This Morning's agony aunt Deidre Sanders has breast cancer.

The 77-year-old star missed out on an invite for a mammogram when she turned 70 due to an NHS "error", but she now has surgery booked for this weekend to remove a "teeny, tiny carcinoma", a cluster of malignant cells in a duct in her right breast.

In a piece for The Sun newspaper - for whom she was an agony aunt for 40 years - Deidre wrote: "The cells were malignant and I now have NHS surgery booked to remove the carcinoma this Saturday.

"How long is it since you had a mammogram?” the consultant asked at that initial appointment.

"The answer was nearly 10 years, because I happen to be among a cohort of several thousand women who, by error, did not get invited for a mammogram when they turned 70.

"We were offered it a couple of years later, but by then I reckoned I must be too old to need it any more as the NHS stops inviting you for a screening after that age. Hah!"

Deidre - who retired at the end of 2020 - admitted her malignant cells were marked as "high-grade", meaning they could "grow and spread aggressively" had they not been discovered so early.

She will open up further about her story on 'This Morning' today (27.09.22), when she plans to urge other women to go for breast screenings when they are invited, and also encourage those over 70 to use their right to request a screening every three years.