'I've used it all my life' Woman convinced talc caused her illness

It was Sue Rizzello’s husband who persuaded her to see a doctor, concerned about the bloating in her abdomen that was making her more and more uncomfortable.

- Esther Addley

Rizzello, then in her late 40s, had assumed it was menopausal weight gain. “A smart locum said: ‘There’s something wrong here’, and sent me for a blood test ... And that saved my life.”

Rizzello had stage 3 ovarian cancer that had begun to spread. She would need to start chemotherapy immediately and prepare for the complete removal of her uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and omentum (a layer of abdominal tissue), a procedure that would put her into menopause.

It was the summer of 2012 and her husband, a chef, was working at an Olympic venue in Windsor, near to their then home in Slough. For Rizzello, “that whole summer was a blur” of painful treatment, including a clinical trial so tough, she was told, that many others had been unable to see it through.

Six months later, the marketing consultant was told her cancer had gone. “But I was never the same. It was massive. It was an earthshaking experience that really shook my confidence to the core.”