This Morning agony aunt Deidre Sanders diagnosed with breast cancer after missing mammogram

ITV This Morning’s resident agony aunt has revealed that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Deidre Sanders, 77, from Cambridgeshire, explained that her diagnosis came about after she wasn’t invited for her mammogram at 70 years old due to an NHS error.

She has chosen to share her news to encourage other women to get checked and not to miss their breast screening appointments.

Deidre said she started “feeling achy” last summer and the tension she usually feels in her shoulders had spread down to her right breast.

After contacting her GP to explain her concerns, she visited an advanced nurse practitioner to undergo a mammogram and an ultrasound scan.

She was then booked in for a biopsy which found that the cells were malignant.

Deidre has been scheduled for NHS surgery to remove a “high-grade” carcinoma in her right breast this Saturday, which could have grown and spread aggressively had it not been discovered so early.

Speaking to The Sun, Deirde said: “I happen to be among a cohort of several thousand women who, by error, did not get invited for a mammogram when they turned 70.”

The agony aunt admits that she “reckoned I must be too old to need it any more as the NHS stops inviting you for a screening after that age.”

According to the Government website when members of the public are 71 or older, they are not automatically invited for breast screenings - despite being more at risk of getting breast cancer than younger women.

However, people can request an appointment once every three years by contacting their local breast screening clinic.

Cancer Research UK statistics state that every year, around a quarter of new breast cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed in people aged 75 and over.

Earlier this year, Grease actress, Olivia Newton-John, passed away at the age of 73, after first getting breast cancer in her early 40s.

Girls Aloud singer, Sarah Harding, also sadly passed away last year at just 39 years old, after a long battle with breast cancer.

According to the NHS, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK and most people are diagnosed over the age of 50. Younger women can still get breast cancer.