ORIORDAN

I want to talk about something I've kept hidden for years. Even though I've shared every detail of my breast cancer journey – I've had it twice, and written about it extensively in The Mail on Sunday and on social media – shame and…

I thought I was prepared for death. As a doctor, I’ve seen people die on the wards. I thought I knew what it was like. I’ve had breast cancer twice and have thought about my own death, as much as it scares me.I’ve written in these pages, a…

A few weeks back I filmed a series of videos on how alcohol increases breast cancer risk. As many give up booze for Dry January, I thought it would be a good time to do it.And aside from being a breast cancer surgeon – now retired – I’ve…

In March, my mum Isobel noticed a small swelling on the back of her upper right arm. It wasn't sore, perhaps a bit tender. I took a look and decided she'd probably pulled a muscle while gardeningAbout a month later, she noticed a lump on…

Liz O'Riordan (above): 'Women like me are generally advised by their doctors that HRT is off the table, for good reason: because it can increase the risk of the breast cancer coming back'It was a startling claim: hormone replacement…

As a breast cancer surgeon, I would speak to my patients about chemotherapy, to tell them that it's a given to try to stop cancer coming back, or sometimes to shrink a tumour before surgery. That there are always side effects. That hair…

When former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman revealed last month that she’d been treated for breast cancer, one fact in her account leapt out at me – as, I suspect, it did for millions of other women who read it.Her only symptom, she wrote in…

Do you check your breasts regularly for signs of cancer? I didn’t – and I was a breast surgeon who spent a career treating breast cancer. Like most women, I didn’t think breast cancer would happen to me. And then, aged 40, it did.I saw the…

A week ago today, pop star Sarah Harding died of breast cancer, aged only 39 – just one of 31 women claimed by the disease every day. While we may not know their names, they all undoubtedly leave behind devastated families, loved ones and…