Victoria Derbyshire mastectomy video diary: BBC presenter reassures women that cancer treatment is ‘manageable’

'Having a mastectomy is totally doable. I didn’t know those things until I got cancer, and that’s what I want to tell people'

Victoria Derbyshire has recorded a video diary about her mastectomy to reassure women who may also undergo treatment for breast cancer that it is “doable”.

The BBC presenter’s video diary shows Derbyshire sat in a hospital bed and holding up a sign saying: “This morning I had breast cancer”, followed by a sign reading: “This afternoon, I don’t”.

Derbyshire held a second sign after which read: 'This afternoon, I don't!'

Derbyshire, 46, tells the camera: ”Today I had a mastectomy. I feel all right, I can't believe it. The NHS have been awesome, I’m completely in awe of them. I feel so grateful to them.

“When I woke up from the anaesthetic I did cry. It was just relief, such a relief. The malignant tumour in my right breast is gone, two or three lymph nodes are gone.”

Derbyshire, a former presenter on Newsnight and BBC Radio 5, made her diagnosis public by informing her followers on Twitter in August.

She urged women to keep their diagnosis in perspective, explaining that while breast cancer may feel overwhelming, treatment is doable. “Having cancer is manageable,” she said. “Having a mastectomy is totally doable. I didn’t know those things until I got cancer, and that’s what I want to tell people.”

She explained her procedure and described the pain post-op as “achy and dull and not searing by any stretch of the imagination”.

“Three lymph nodes were taken away as they had tiny, tiny, bits of cancerous cells, so they took them out and will analyse that tissue, and that will guide the medical professionals in terms of whether I end up having radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.

“It reminds me of, if you've got boys and you're playing football with them and they tackle you a bit too hard and run into you, bash you because they don't realise your chest is so sensitive.”

Dr Emma Smith, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, praised Derbyshire for addressing her mastectomy head-on. “When celebrities like Victoria talk publicly about their experiences of cancer, it can have a positive impact and might help patients who are going through the same kind of journey. People cope with a cancer diagnosis and treatment very differently but, with one in two of us set to be affected by cancer, it’s important to continue raising awareness of the disease and dispelling some of the myths around it.”

Derbyshire will return to work on 20 October until she starts further treatment.

The diary will be shown during The Victoria Derbyshire Show from 9.15am on BBC 2.