Why don't we just have a good old check?

After she found a benign breast lump, TV presenter Josie Gibson tells LISA SALMON how she now makes sure she regularly talks with her friends about breast examination

- LISA SALMON

WHEN Josie Gibson found a lump in her breast, she was understandably frightened.

The TV presenter went straight to the doctor, and was relieved to be told the lump was connected to her breast implant, and was nothing sinister.

“I checked because I had a funny change in my breast - I had a lump coming out at the side,’ she says. “So I went to the doctors and they checked, and luckily it wasn’t breast cancer, it was actually my implant.”

This Morning presenter Josie, 40, had the implants put in about 10 years before, but reveals: “I got so paranoid that I had them out, and I tell you what, I felt amazing”

Although the lump wasn’t breast cancer, the experience, in 2023, has made Josie acutely aware of the disease, and she’s now teamed up with charity Breast Cancer Now and bingo brand Tombola for their ‘eyes down, check up’ breast cancer campaign, through which she says she’s learned a lot.

“I’m not a doctor, but what I’ve learned is you're looking for any changes in the skin, any dimpling, or any changes in the colour of breasts, any nipple changes, or crusting around the nipple, or any discharge and any changes in shape, if one breast looks bigger than the other,’ she says.

“Before I got involved in this campaign, I was just checking for a lump - I didn’t realise all the other things to look out for”

Although Breast Cancer Now says breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with one woman diagnosed every 10 minutes, research by tombola found fewer than half (44%) of women surveyed said they don’t check their breasts regularly, and one in 10 admitted they can't remember the last time they checked their breasts.