British TV presenter Anne Diamond has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant said she had received the diagnosis the same day as finding out she was to receive an OBE (Order of the British Empire) award.

"I had the full works, the full mastectomy. This is the first time I've talked about it, so it's quite difficult but I've had the full works. The first operation I had was nine hours long," she said.

"I've had a load of radiotherapy, which I found very hard too.

"So it's been a journey, but I'm not pretending for a minute that I am extraordinary, because I am fully aware that a quarter of women in this country are going through what I've just gone through and I don't have any advice to give.

"I only have empathy."

After beginning her career in regional news, Diamond went on to work for both ITV and the BBC, becoming a star of daytime TV in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Loose Women presenter presented programmes like BBC One's Good Morning with Anne And Nick, TV-am’s Good Morning Britain and TV Weekly.

Diamond joined GB News in 2022 to host weekend breakfast shows with Stephen Dixon, although she has been off the air for six months.

Speaking to GB News' Dan Wootton, she revealed she had undergone a double mastectomy in her "fight against breast cancer" – which she described as "a long journey".

"I haven't been on a world cruise, which is what I know social media has been saying… because I'm well known now for loving cruises," she said.

"It's been a fight against breast cancer. That's what it's been. It's been a long journey. And five months later, I'm still not at the end of the journey, but I'm through it enough to come back to work."

Speaking about being awarded the British honour of OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to public health and charity, she told GB News: "It was a wonderful moment and that was like 9.30 in the morning.

"But I knew then, because I'd already seen my GP, that I had to go to a breast cancer screening thing later in the morning. I thought I would just go for a mammogram, and a couple of tests and I'd be free in an hour.

"I spent the entire morning at my local hospital where they did everything, biopsies, X-rays, CT scans, a couple of mammograms, everything, and by lunchtime I was still there.

"And a lovely lady came with a lanyard around her neck that said MacMillan Cancer Care and I knew then it was serious."

Diamond will return to GB News on Saturday to host Breakfast with Dixon.

She has also been a presenter on radio shows on LBC, Radio Oxford, BBC London and BBC Berkshire as well as a panellist on Loose Women and The Wright Stuff – a topical debate show hosted by journalist Matthew Wright.

In 2002, Diamond appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and became the second person to be evicted.

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Source: Press Association