Yahoo News Former Casualty star Sunetra Sarker shares cancer scare
Former Casualty star Sunetra Sarker has opened up about a recent cancer scare after going for a mammogram.
The actress opened up about undergoing the test for breast cancer after losing two friends to the disease last year, revealing on Loose Women that while she is thankfully in the clear, there was one concerning result in her initial X-ray that meant she had to have a follow up.
After documenting her trip in a short film on yesterday's (February 22) edition of the ITV daytime show, Sarker explained: "I knew it was important that I did this, I was really quite floored by losing two of my mates."
Related: Loose Women's Coleen Nolan shares update after cancer scare
Describing the passing of her two friends as "a real rug pull in my life", the actress recalled: "When I got the latter saying you have to have your breast screening, I knew I owed it to them.
"Because they didn’t get there, they didn’t get to be in the lucky position where I haven’t got any symptoms and I'm fine and I'm going to go and just find out. That was a massive reason why I was like let's take a camera crew."
Sarker continued: "I went along and realised it isn’t just people like myself who might be a bit nervous about it. There's a huge demographic – predominantly South Asian women actually – who are a bit scared, because it's so intimate. It's private parts, it's having a man.
Related: Casualty star Sunetra Sarker shares first look at Zoe Hanna return
"I know people of my mother's generation, who perhaps don’t speak English well enough to feel comfortable to have a man touching you. They don't touch you. Nobody touches my body at all apart from me."
The star explained that she was "so confident" that "everything was going to be fine" initially, especially as she had a camera crew with her.
"I then got told I had to go back, because they'd seen a little white shadow. And then I got really scared and thought, 'Wow, didn’t even see that coming,' because I'm so fine. I had to go back and have a 3D scan.
Related: Former Casualty star Sunetra Sarker reunites with on-screen husband Jamie Davis
"This is where my heart goes out to every woman who's received that letter, because the wait is when you think of everything and anything that could go wrong with you."
Thankfully it was confirmed that there was "actually nothing wrong" with her, as Sarker encouraged people not to be put off checking: "Because isn’t it better to catch anything earlier rather than later?"
In other news, Sarker is due to reprise her role of Dr Zoe Hanna in Casualty for a brief appearance as part of Charlie Fairhead's upcoming exit storyline.
Loose Women airs on weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX. Casualty airs on Saturdays on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.
Read more Casualty spoilers on our dedicated homepage
More information or support about living with breast cancer or treatment is available from organisations including Macmillan Cancer Support, Coppafeel!, Cancer Research UK and Stand Up to Cancer.
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