Former BBC Breakfast presenter Sian Williams has revealed that she has had a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the disease, the newsreader explained that her biggest fear was not seeing her two young children grow up.
In an interview with Woman and Home magazine, the mother-of-four said that despite a family history of cancer, she and her husband Paul Woolwich never imagined she would get it.
Sian Williams (Nick Ansell/PA)
She said: “The week after my 50th birthday I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought I was healthy. I did all the right things – I was a green tea drinker, a salmon eater, a runner.”
The 51-year-old also told the publication she thought it was so 'improbable' that she had the disease that she did not take her husband with her to receive the results of a biopsy, the Daily Mail reports.
Sian, who currently anchors News on Channel 5, continued: “My biggest fear was not being there as a mum – and for some unfathomable reason, I couldn’t stop thinking that I want to be here for my daughter, Evie, to watch her get married.
“My aunt died of breast cancer, and I’d lost my mum to liver and bowel cancer – and I gradually began to realise how bewildered and scared I was.”
She further told the magazine that nobody apart from her children’s teacher knew she had undergone a double mastectomy.
The Welsh presenter explained that at the time she was 'horrible' to her husband because she was intent on being strong.
She added: “Paul is an extraordinary man. I have learnt I need to let him know if I need support or an outstretched hand to help me up.”
