Victoria Ekanoye has revealed she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The soap star, who played Angie Appleton in Coronation Street, found a lump in her breast shortly after the birth of her son earlier this year.
The actress was given the all clear by two doctors, but decided to get a third opinion.
Speaking to OK magazine, the 39-year-old said: “Back in July I was breastfeeding Théo and I noticed there was a small lump protruding at the top of my left breast. My mum had breast cancer at 41, and her sister at 39 – so many people in my family in fact. So I don’t really leave any time before I check these things.”
“I went for an ultrasound in France and they said that they thought it was a fibroadenoma. But it didn’t sit well with me. I’ve had benign lumps in the past but this just felt different. So I went for a second opinion.”
“I had another ultrasound and they said the same thing but they thought they could see small calcifications and that they might be more to do with problems within the milk ducts due to breastfeeding.”
“My gut was telling me not to just let it be. So we came back to the UK and I got referred to the One Stop Breast Clinic by my GP.”
The mother-of-one, who suffers from sickle cell, was then diagnosed with breast cancer.
She said: “She told me they’d found cancerous cells, over a 4cm mass, and that I’d have to have a mastectomy. The lumps themselves didn’t have cancerous cells, but they found DCIS, which is ductal carcinoma in situ, which is smaller cancerous cells within the milk ducts.”
Speaking about her upcoming mastectomy, the actress said: “This could be a curative. Naturally they will test the mass that they remove, to ensure the cancer isn’t invasive.”
“If it isn’t then surgery might be enough to save me and I won’t have to go through the even tougher journey of chemotherapy.”
Victoria admitted the death of Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding, who was also diagnosed with breast cancer, made her decide to check out her own health.
She said: “[Me and Sarah are] the same age. It was really alarming for me, as it was for everyone. And so sad. Really sad.”
“If anything it made me determined to get to the bottom of things with my health.”
