Kelly Hoppen has announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Appearing on ITV's This Morning talking to Alison Hammond and Holly Willoughby, the Dragons' Den star admitted that she had "the fear of God" over going for her routine mammograms. She said that she put the tests off for more than eight years.
Explaining why she finally decided to go, Kelly said: "I just kept putting it off and putting it off. But then suddenly, I don't know what it was, but I just decided I was going to get it."
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Despite the diagnosis, Kelly said that she felt "lucky". She was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) - which she refers to as the "the very mildest form of cancer".
The 63-year-old said: "I had no symptoms and it was just a rollercoaster of eight weeks being told that it was fine and going back to be told no it's not. Then having endless biopsies.
"But I was lucky that it was something called DCIS in a milk duct so they would remove that. Then I had to have an operation to remove all of the tissue around it. I was lucky. But through the process I kept thinking I can't be the only person who feels this way."
She added: "I carried on as normal. It was all that I knew how to do."
Alison asked: "Has this changed you at all?" Kelly replied: "Yeah, I'm not going to stress about small things."
She added: "Every day I wake up and think today is a good day. It's different because every day I wake up and I see the scar so I can never ever wake up and not think about it."
The TV star said she "has no choice" about going for future mammograms and will make sure she goes to every one scheduled from now on.
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