The Masked Singer guest judge Jennifer Saunders shared more than a decade ago that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer after going to a mammogram appointment
It has been more than a decade since it was announced that Jennifer Saunders had been diagnosed with breast cancer and she’s since spoken about her experience.
Some of her comments have resurfaced this week amid the comedian, 66, appearing as judge on the Masked Singer’s Christmas special with Dawn French, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan on Thursday night. She had previously been a guest judge in the fifth series, which aired earlier this year.
Jennifer previously shared that she received her cancer diagnosis in 2009 after having a routine mammogram. She’s also spoken about having undergone months of treatment, including chemotherapy, prior to receiving the ‘all clear’.
Although she’s understood to have not publicly discussed the diagnosis until after her treatment, Jennifer reflected on the experience in 2011. She told the Radio Times: “You just grit your teeth and bear it. It becomes your job and your job is now getting through this next year of whatever.”
Jennifer also wrote about it in her memoir Bonkers: My Life in Laughs, which was released in 2013. She wrote that she “always had regular mammograms” but had been “aware” that she was “overdue” her latest one by a number of months, before sharing that a “small lump” showed up when she eventually went for the appointment. She added that a biopsy later confirmed cancer.
The Absolutely Fabulous star said that it did not appear to be “fast-growing,” so she had a lumpectomy – which is surgery to remove an area of cancer from the breast. Jennifer shared that subsequently treatment included chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She said that her oncologist decided on a “six-month course of treatment” and revealed that she found having chemotherapy “a bit scary” initially. Jennifer then described it as being “like the most enormous hangover you’ve ever had”.
The actor said “you never really know how you’re gonna feel” from one day to the next though. She expressed gratitude for her support network who “rallied round” her during the experience, noting that there are times when it “isn’t possible to stay positive” and “times when you just want to cry all day”.
Jennifer has also discussed taking the drug tamoxifen as part of her treatment. As previously reported, she’s said that it blocked her production of oestrogen and brought on the menopause. She told the Radio Times: “You are pushed into menopause like jumping off a cliff.”
Further discussing her experience with cancer, Jennifer said on the Jonathan Ross Show in 2014: “I’ve had so many wigs in my life. I spend my life in a wig, professionally, so that to me was probably the least distressing thing, to go bald.”
She however told host Jonathan that she did not like being referred to as “brave”. Jennifer said: “You don’t have to be brave to have [cancer], you just get it. It’s not like a battle, you have to just submit to the process of treatment.”
If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at Breast Cancer Support.
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