Victoria Ekanoye says baby 'saved her life' after finding cancer while breastfeeding

What did you miss?

The Real Full Monty star Victoria Ekanoye has said she feels that her young son saved her life as she noticed a cancerous lump while breastfeeding him as a baby.

The former Coronation Street star was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and appeared on Tuesday's Loose Women to talk about her experiences. Death In Paradise star Victoria Ekanoye is one of the brave celebrities taking part in this year's The Real Full Monty, where famous people strip off to raise awareness of cancer for the ITV show.

What, how, and why?

In an appearance on Tuesday's Loose Women, she told how she wanted to take part to encourage others to check themselves for symptoms - and shared how she feels her son saved her life as she discovered a lump while breastfeeding him.

Ekanoye was emotional as Ruth Langsford asked her about discovering her own breast cancer in 2021 and she replied: "Not crying today...my son Theo was six months old and I was breastfeeding him and I found a lump. It's natural, you've just had a baby, there's so many changes in your body hormonally, you just assume those changes are due to being pregnant or breastfeeding. I wanted so much for that to be the case.

"But I'm the fifth person in my family now to develop breast cancer, the ninth to develop some form of cancer in three generations, and I'm also a patron for Prevent Breast Cancer so I was kidding myself really."

Former Corries star Ekanoye, who has sickle cell anaemia, said because of her existing condition she was already very aware of changes in her body and described the lump as "like a frozen pea or chickpea". She said: "I genuinely believe this, I think having Theo saved my life. If I weren't breastfeeding him, I might not have noticed because it pushed the lump to the surface. It got to a point where you could just see it."

The actor added that her treatment included taking cancer drugs and said of the side effects: "I'm now in an induced menopause, which is really fun with a toddler. She shared that a blood test had shown very small amounts of cancer cells still circulating in her body and said she was waiting to hear whether she would need chemotherapy.

Talking about The Real Full Monty, hosted by Loose Women star Coleen Nolan, she said: "The whole experience has been an assault on the senses, but in the best way possible. It's just been so raw and like a big group therapy session every time we got together."

She said of having cancer: "It's like a bomb that gets dropped in your world and the ripple effect is huge. It isn't just the surgery or the treatment or even diagnosis, it's the impact it has on everybody around you, your family, your friends, and that fear then forever that it could come back."

What else has been happening on Loose Women?

In Monday's show, Dragons' Den star Sara Davies told the panel how she had helped Strictly Come Dancing pal Amy Dowden to decide on having chemotherapy. Dowden was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year and has been through gruelling rounds of chemo, which she had been reluctant to do as it would mean missing out on taking part in Strictly this year.

Davies, who became friends with Dowden when she took part in Strictly 2021, said: "I was with her when she was making that decision. And I remember, because she'd had the mastectomy straight away, she kind of felt like 'well, they've taken it away, so that's finished, that's the end of it. I don't want to have chemo, I don't want to lose my hair, I won't be able to dance on Strictly this year.'

"But the doctors were saying she should, and I said, 'Amy, if the doctors are saying you should, you really need to do it. This is a life changing thing, if this is what they're saying you really need to embrace it.'" The crafting entrepreneur added: "The chemotherapy was as terrifying as the other C word she was dealing with in her life."

The Real Full Monty airs on ITV at 9pm tonight (Tuesday).

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