Eleven years on from her shock breast cancer diagnosis, long-running Loose Women favourite Carol McGiffin says she still lives with the effects of the treatment she underwent
Loose Women star Carol McGiffin was handed the devastating news she had been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer back in 2014.
She had spotted a lump while on holiday, but didn’t mention it to her partner until the Loose Women presenter could get home and have it checked by her GP. Carol said at the time: “I knew from the moment I saw the doctor it was cancer. It was a bit like, ‘Oh, right then. I know what this is about.’”
Carol underwent a year of intensive treatment, including a mastectomy, six rounds of chemotherapy and 15 sessions of radiotherapy.
However, she says, the effects of that treatment still linger on. She told Best magazine: “I haven't felt 'well' for over 10 years since I had breast cancer, but it wasn't the cancer that made me feel ill, it was the chemotherapy.”
In a bid to restore her health, Carol has tried a number of alternative therapies, but they haven’t worked out for her: “In an effort to improve how I feel,” she says. “I’ve fallen for loads of wellness stuff like massages, yoga, spas, even meditation – which, if I'm honest, was all a big waste of time and money.”
Carol is dismissive of the “wellness” industry – which according to recent figures is worth over £170 billion in the UK. She says the entire concept of wellness is “dreamt up by clever marketing people” and that no matter how much people spend on visiting spas or going on yoga retreats, it will only have a placebo effect.
Carol says the secret to a good life is ignoring wellness fads and simply being good to yourself. Her recipe for contentment is “living in a sunny climate because I believe in the power of the sun, eating a classic Mediterranean diet and crucially, not depriving myself of anything.”
She says she doesn’t worry too much about what she eats and drinks, and focuses on taking life easily and avoiding stress which, she points out, is “the biggest killer of all.”
Carol took a pragmatic approach to her diagnosis, only telling very close friends about her treatment: “My mum had cancer and she’d brought us up to be tough about illness. I thought: ‘So what if I’ve got breast cancer? Thousands of women get it every year. I’ll get through this.’
Speaking to the Mirror, she recalled how she had told her partner Mark not to bother coming to the hospital with her for one of her early scans: "I thought he’d gone to work as promised. I looked at him and said: ‘Yep, it is breast cancer.’ We just went straight to the pub and got absolutely plastered.
“But there weren’t any tears,” Carol added. “Cancer is not the death sentence it used to be if it’s caught early because there is loads of good research. You just have to get on with what life throws at you.”
She said that it’s unclear what might have caused her cancer, which is why she hasn’t made any major changes in her lifestyle: “Cancer does make you look at your lifestyle. Some people say it’s alcohol-related – but it could be anything.
"I could give up drinking tomorrow and still get it. I would be miserable so what would be the point?”
