RUSSELL LEADBETTER
TV presenter Carol McGiffin has publicly thanked the public for their expressions of support following after she revealed that she has been diagnosed with cancer last year.
McGiffin, a former panellist on ITV's Loose Women, send the heartfelt message to her 432,000 followers on the micro-blogging site Twitter, hours after she had posted the message yesterday (SUN).
She wrote: "Can't thank you all enough for the brilliantly supportive and funny messages I've received today. Thank you thank you and thank you. xxx"
McGiffin revealed on the site that she had discovered a lump in her breast while on holiday in Malaysia last February.
The 54-year-old says she is now past the illness after a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions.
Among those voicing support on social media was Sherrie Hewson, a panellist on the popular daytime show, who tweeted to McGiffin and her fiance, Mark Cassidy: "Sending big love to Carol M and Mark. No cancer puts Mcgiff in the corner ! Xxx."
It was immedatiely re-tweeted by Kaye Adams, the Scottish presenter of the show.
She is the second member of the show to be diagnosed with cancer. Lsat year, the actress and presenter Lynda Bellingham, died in October of colon cancer.
McGiffin, who was photographed in a Sunday newspaper with her hair cut short, wrote: "About this time last year, I found a lump that turned out to be breast cancer .
"I finished my treatment just before Christmas and I'm now recovering from the effects of that.
"It's not been easy but it's not been a fight, or a battle. In fact, looking back, the whole thing has almost seemed like nothing more than a bad dream.
"The druggie haze I've been in for the past nine months has made the situation almost unreal and now I just feel like I've got a monster chemo hangover."
She later added: "I don't want to pretend any more. I kept it a secret because I didn't want anyone feeling sorry for me.
"I feel it is over now and I've got I through it. I just want to be able to go out without my hat on and for people not to be bothered. I just want life to get back to normal."
She praised the staff at London's Royal Free Hospital, adding: "I swear I've spent so much time there in the past 12 months it's become like a second home."
She appeared on Loose Women for 13 years before leaving in 2013. She married DJ Chris Evans but the couple divorced in 1998.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article