This Morning agony aunt Deidre Saunders discussed her recent cancer diagnosis with hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on Tuesday's show.
The well-known agony aunt joined the presenters in the ITV studio to open up about the moment she was told she had a cancerous lump in her breast.
Deidre, 77, decided to go and see her doctor and have a mammogram because she was feeling "achey".
She was later seen at the breast clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, by a nurse who could instantly feel a difference in her right breast and put her on the NHS two-week cancer pathway - where anyone suspected of having cancer is seen within two weeks for a hospital diagnosis.
"I was referred for a mammogram, that happened within something like 10 days. I then went on holiday, but they did find at the mammogram something called calcification which can happen in different parts of the body, but it does happen in older women's breasts.
"Tiny, tiny little microscopic flecks of calcium but if they're in a cluster that can be a sign of trouble and there was a cluster so they said you're gonna have to come back for a biopsy."
Deidre went on to admit that she had made a "big mistake" by thinking that she didn't necessarily need a regular check after turning 70.
"Your automatic call for mammograms every three years stops when you're 70, and I think I got a letter a couple of years later and I looked online and I thought, 'ohhhh I'll be fine'... that was a big mistake to think that," she explained.
"And what I want to say to women over 70, you've got a right to request a mammogram so please request it. You can have a free mammogram every three years and it's so worthwhile," Deidre added.
"I think people panic at the word cancer often, and they can be scared of going to their doctor with their initial worry."
This weekend, Deidre is having a lumpectomy and said: "I'll have some radiotherapy later on but that should be that."
When asked by mother-of-three Holly how she felt when she received her diagnosis, Deidre replied: "I think I feel really, really fortunate that it's been caught early. And I feel lucky that it's just a lumpectomy."
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
