Big Brother star Nicola McLean has opened up about a terrifying cancer scare that left her fearing for her life. The 43-year-old discovered a lump in her breast last November which immediately propelled her into a state of panic.
In an exclusive conversation with the Mirror, she revealed: “I found a lump on my breast while I was moisturising and immediately I broke down in tears and thought, ‘What if it’s cancer?’ … Straight away I thought, ‘I’m going to die’.”
Nicola, who has struggled with anxiety several years, continued: “Something like this makes my mind go into overdrive. As someone who has anxiety anyway, this was just awful.”
The former glamour model starred in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here in 2008, before featuring on Celebrity Big Brother in 2012 and again in 2017. She has two children, Rocky, 18, and Striker, 14, with her husband Tom Williams.
Although Nicola confided in her husband straight after finding the lump, she couldn’t bring herself to tell their sons. She went on: “Tom was amazing – he’s so supportive and we talk about everything. He’s the calm one and was telling me, ‘We don’t know what it is yet,’ and being really rational. I didn’t tell the kids.
“I would never tell the kids something like this – I wouldn’t want to worry them. They know I have anxiety, and I’ll tell them when I’m feeling anxious because I think it’s good to talk about it, but I’d never worry them with something like this.”
Nicola was immensely relieved to hear from doctors that her lump wasn’t cancerous. “I went to the GP, who referred me to the cancer unit. They were great – really quick with everything,” she explained.
“It was a massive relief. But being referred to a cancer unit is scary in itself. The doctor said if the lump had been larger than 4cm it would have had to be removed, but it wasn’t, thankfully.”
Nicola has always been candid about her cosmetic enhancements, including her three breast augmentations which resulted in a 32GG bust. However, the mother-of-two admitted that it’s made it more challenging to keep on top of checking her breasts.
“My implants are so big that it’s hard to know what is mine and what isn’t, which made me not check as much,” she said, before later continuing: “My mum had breast cancer and it was a really gruelling time.
“She had chemotherapy and then radiotherapy and lost all her hair – it was awful. Thankfully, she is fine now and got through it. She’s so inspiring. But that made me worry more because it is hereditary, so of course my mind went straight to cancer when I found the lump.
“You’d think because my mum had it, I’d be more conscious about checking my boobs and keeping an eye on my health. But I went the opposite way. I bury my head in the sand when things like this happen and try to put things off for as long as possible. I just think, ‘I’m going to be okay and live forever,’ but this has been a real wake-up call for me.”