Fergie opens up about cancer “paranoia”
Sarah Ferguson has spoken candidly about feeling paranoid that her cancer would return.
The Duchess of York appeared on a UK morning show, and shared how she regularly wakes in the middle of night in a panic that she would “get cancer somewhere else”.
The 64-year-old royal, who appeared on the show to talk about the importance of attending your regular mammogram appointments, said, “You start four in the morning syndrome.”
“You know that moment when you suddenly wake up and go ‘oh I'm sure I've got cancer somewhere else... I'm gonna go and ring my doctor’.”
“I'm getting over that but it's only been a few months since I've had the operation, so I'm just beginning to sit up straight.”
The Duchess also opened up about feeling grateful that her diagnosis was caught early, and navigating the “feeling of demise” at the reality of living with cancer.
“I caught it so early, just in time,” she added.
“The real thing is, it's that terrible fear of ‘oh no, it won't happen to me’... and that's why I want to shout about it. I wouldn't be sitting here if I hadn't have gone.”
Fergie admitted that she had been putting off her routine appointment, but her older sister, who was visiting her from Australia, pushed her to have the mammogram.
The Duchess added that she's “very grateful” to the Royal Free Hospital and the NHS, praising their detection systems.
“I had a shadow, it was like a splat,” she explained. “Eighteen months before, it wasn't there. So it had come on from the last mammogram to this mammogram.”
She also added she will “never forget” her drive from the hospital.
“Your mind goes into, ‘oh my god I've got to have a mastectomy, and you look it up and it's all so terrifying and this is what's going to happen and then I'm not going to see my grandchildren grow up’.”
“That's what goes through your head... it's that feeling of demise.”
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