BB FANS

Oct 16 2005
Leah Oatway
Wales on Sunday


FORMER Big Brother star Lisa Jeynes has spoken of the breast cancer scares that still haunt her today.

The pretty Penarth blonde chose to talk about her trauma to raise awareness of the disease, as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Lisa, 37, who suffered her first scare when she found a lump at the age of 21, feared the worst as her gran had secondary breast cancer.

"I had to wait 48 hours for the results - they were the longest 48 hours of my life. You think of everything, the worst possible scenario. I was only 21," she said, modelling a £10 charity breast cancer t-shirt from M&S.

Lisa's biopsy failed to identify what the lump was so to be safe her consultant arranged to have it removed.

She said: "I was placed on a ward with other ladies who had breast cancer, many of whom had undergone mastectomies. It was one of the most terrifying and yet humbling moments of my life."

Her second scare came three months before Big Brother House two years ago, when she found another lump in the shape of a cigar under her arm, which she also had removed.

Since then she has had breast implants, in part to throw up any other lumps, she said.

Lisa, who stars in The Price of Fame on VH1 at 9pm tonight, said: "I was one of the lucky ones. All I will say to women out there is check yourself - your life could depend on it."

Admirable sentiments.

I cant help thinking that having breast implants "to throw up any other lumps" is a bit of a nonsense. Surely if you have a history of breast lumps / scares, the sensible approach is not to coat your breast tissue in a layer of silicon that prevents feeling anything underneath. I can understand that it might be less of a risk to a diagonosed cancer sufferer than the mental scarring involved in mastectomy to be able to have the opportunity to reconstruct afterwards, but theres no evidence of her having had any such surgery or requiring any form of reconstructive procedure.

Surely the most appropriate approach in her circumstances would be to adopt a policy of maintaining regular screening and self checking. Something that all men and women should be doing with their available parts at least once a month anyway.

*nodding*

have had a wee scare mesel and had to go to hospital to get it checked out....prevention/early detection rather than relying on cure I would say.

we now cover a lot of this kind of stuff with the kids at school (from age 12/13 upwards) so hopefully, in time, it will just become matter of course and not a taboo subject to speak about..

Me too. About 11 years ago, but it was a really scary time for me. Turned out to be normal hormonal lumpage, but if I hadnt got it checked and it was something more serious I wouldnt be typing this.

People seem to have stopped whispering the word cancer now, but I recently heard quite shocking statistics for people who dont make regular checks of themselves. Hopefully now the message is getting to younger ears this might make more of a difference in the future.

Can I just say then, that that makes three of us....cos without wish to say this for the sake of it, I had to have a lump removed when I was 19 (it was benign) - but its the only time I've ever had to have an op and thank the Lord I had a good friend who took me to the hosp and stayed there through the day with me, she was fantastic.

thank God for good friends eh? - I had one of them too

I didnt. I went on my own. I feel deprived now.