It was 17 years ago that the late Jade Goody sat on the floor in the diary room of Big Brother and broke down in tears as she was told by her doctor she had cervical cancer.
And now brave Trisha Goddard has signed up for Celebrity Big Brother despite having incurable stage four breast cancer after she said: ‘I must keep enjoying what I have always enjoyed’.
The ITV darling, who hosted the popular daytime chat show Trisha from 1998 to 2004, announced in February last year that the cancer she was diagnosed with in 2008 and eventually beat, had sadly returned.
The mother of two daughters Billie and Madison, who relocated to the US in 2010, devastatingly revealed the cancer ‘is not going away’ and keeping the secret was ‘becoming a burden’.
But, while she was ‘nervous’ about revealing the cancer’s re-emergence, ‘It needed to be done’.
She received the terminal diagnosis 20 months ago and has since said: ‘With that knowledge comes grief and fear. But I must keep enjoying what I have always enjoyed.’
Legendary TV host Trisha Goddard will bravely enter the Celebrity Big Brother house on Monday despite her terminal stage four breast cancer diagnosis
The former chat show host revealed back in February last year that her incurable cancer had returned after cells were found in her hip following a fall, and she is undergoing life-prolonging treatment
Trisha will enter the Celebrity Big Brother on Monday night alongside the American actor Mickey Rourke and EastEnders legend, Patsy Palmer, and could be in there for up to three weeks.
The mother-of-two has secondary breast cancer – meaning the disease started in the breast and spread to another part of the body – for which there is treatment but no cure.
ITV have been contacted by MailOnline to ask if producers will provide any extra care for the television star while she is in the Big Brother house.
The London-born TV star originally shared her diagnosis on Instagram, where she shared a picture of her cropped back hair and captioned it: ‘Like my new hairstyle – I can’t hide it anymore.’
Prompted by a concern that if the news spread about her terminal breast cancer, ‘People will start seeing me as a frail little thing,’ she has spent the past year speaking openly about her battle and is expected to do so in the Big Brother house.
In an interview with Hello magazine, she said: ‘I’m a journalist; I don’t want to be the “the story”. I don’t want to be interviewing someone and for them to say to me: ‘I’m so sorry’.’
Her secondary cancer was discovered by accident after she broke her femur during a fall and a doctor discovered her damaged right hip was ‘full of cancerous cells’.
Trisha is best known for her self-titled chat show on ITV – before its move to Channel 5 – as well as its US version.
Trisha in 1987 started out her television career at ABC as the ‘new anchor girl’ reporting on work out bikes and weight machines, she went on to have a celebrated 40-year career in TV
At the Pride of Britain Awards in 2009, a year after she was first diagnosed with cancer
Trisha Goddard in 2023, a year after doctors told her the breast cancer diagnosis was incurable
She now hosts on Talk and occasionally appears on Good Morning Britain and lives in Connecticut with her fourth husband, Allen, who she married in 2022.
She has twin daughters from her second long-term partner, Mark Grieve, the youngest of which identifies as non-binary.
In 2008, Jade Goody appeared on the Indian version of Big Brother in a bid to redeem herself from her racism row with Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty in 2007.
But the mother-of-two was forced to abandon the show and fly back to the UK just two days in after receiving the devastating news she had cervical cancer.
Producers decided to broadcast the heartbreaking moment she sat in tears on the phone to doctors in London, to the outrage of viewers 10 years after her death.
Jade died from cervical cancer on March 22, 2009, seven months after her diagnosis, which came while she was on Big Brother India. She is pictured in January 2009
In a clip from the show, Jade said: ‘I had no idea that that conversation was being filmed… it was not right’ (pictured January 2009)
Jade’s cancer spread to her bowel, liver and groin and she died on Mother’s Day in March 2009. She left behind two sons, Bobby and Freddy, now 15 and 14
The moment she shared the devastating news with her housemates before leaving the show was also aired on Indian TV.
In a clip from the Channel 4 show, Jade said: ‘I had no idea that that conversation was being filmed… it was not right.’
She said it felt ‘lonely’ to feel like she was the last to learn of her diagnosis and she ‘just wanted to be cuddled’.
Jade made the decision to continue with her reality show filming and work commitments to make money for her young sons Bobby and Freddie while raising awareness and raising thousands of pounds for cervical cancer.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called ‘invasive’. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.
Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000
