‘I just crumbled, I thought I was going to die,’ sobs mum-of-5 Danielle Lloyd as she opens up on agonising cancer battle
FOR the last three months, Danielle Lloyd’s life has been a living nightmare.
Breaking down in tears as she chats to The Sun, the 41-year-old mum-of-five bravely opens up about the agony she faced while waiting ten weeks to find out if the skin cancer she had been diagnosed with in February had spread.
“It’s been horrendous,” Danielle tells us in an exclusive interview.
“Being a mum, I was trying to put a brave face on for everyone, but inside I’ve been crumbling. I was worried every single day that I was going to die.
“I’ve been through a lot in my life and I’m a strong person but just looking at my kids and worrying that I wouldn’t be there for them… I’m going to cry now.”
She stops to break down, before quickly composing herself.
“It’s heartbreaking, really and just scary.”
Danielle’s ordeal first began last spring, when she first noticed a small mole on her collarbone was growing.
“I’d been looking at this mole for ages. I knew it was changing rapidly and it was on my mind because I had a friend last year who sadly passed away from bowel cancer.
“She was only 35 and left behind two kids, so that really brought home to me that I have to take care of myself.”
I was trying to put a brave face on for everyone, but inside I’ve been crumbling.
Danielle
After seeing a GP, she was referred to a dermatologist at the hospital, who decided the mole needed to be removed.
The surgery to remove the mole took place back in December, but Danielle faced a two-month wait to find out if it was cancerous.
“I was waiting nine weeks and everyone around me kept telling me that no news was good news, but obviously you do worry.
“Then I got the call asking me to go into the hospital the next day and that’s when the doctor said to me those words: ‘You have skin cancer. It’s melanoma.’
“I just burst into tears. I wasn’t expecting it. When I heard the word ‘cancer’, I just thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going to die.’”
‘I lost two stone from stress’
Danielle then had to have another operation in February to take away the surrounding tissue to check if the melanoma – which is the deadliest form of skin cancer – had spread.
“My worry was, because the mole was so close to my neck, it was really close to all my lymph nodes and then it can spread all over your body.”
When Danielle decided to courageously go public with her diagnosis, via an Instagram post earlier this year, she was praised by her followers for being strong and improving awareness of melanoma.
But behind the scenes, she admits she was falling apart.
“It affected my whole life,” she recalls, becoming emotional again.
“I went into my shell and didn’t want to even like socialise with people, because I couldn’t function properly.
“Even little things like doing the dishwasher or doing the washing. Things just sort of come to a halt. I was having sleepless nights and just worrying constantly.
“I’ve lost about two stone through stress because I couldn’t eat. I kept getting pains in my back up into my ear, and I convinced myself the cancer was spreading.
“I would sit there googling about skin cancer was just spiralling, really. I think the only things that kept me going were my kids and my husband.”
Danielle credits her hubby, electrician Michael O’Neill, with being her rock during the process, as well as her five kids – Archie, 14, Harry, 13, George, 11, Ronnie, seven and Autumn Rose, three – for providing a welcome distraction.
“I told my older kids what was happening – they were old enough to understand.
“But my younger kids, I didn’t want to obviously tell them, because they just wouldn’t have understood.
“If kids hear the word cancer, they are just going to think of death, aren’t they?”
When I heard the word ‘cancer’, I just thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going to die.’
Danielle
After eight long, stressful weeks, Danielle received a call from the hospital telling her she had the all clear – only for a further call to turn everything on its head again.
“I got a call telling me the surrounding tissue had come back clear and I was so relieved.
“But then the following day, they rang me back to say there had been a mistake and I shouldn’t have been told I had the all clear.
“They said they hadn’t had all the results back and I would have to wait longer.”
‘I was a mess’
By now, Danielle had reached breaking point.
“I was a mess honestly. I was like, why would they say it’s OK if it’s not?
“It was so scary and I was also really angry. I just felt like screaming. All I’ve done for the past few months is cry.”
Eventually, after another agonising week, Danielle got the call she had been waiting for.
“I was in the garden and I saw the call come in from the consultant. She told me she didn’t want me to have to wait for the letter to come, and she finally told me I had the all clear.
“I just burst into tears, then just got on the phone to everyone – my parents, Michael, my friends – to tell them the good news.
“I was just so happy it was finally over and I can get on with my life.”
While she can move on, however, Danielle admits that what she has been through has changed her outlook entirely.
“I’ve got to be very cautious about going in the sun now, because once you have had melanoma once, you will likely get it again in the future.
“I have to go for another appointment with the consultant in three months and I’m really so much more vigilant now because I’ve got a lot of moles.
“In the past, I’d be the one on holiday getting the best sunbed at 8am, but now I’ve totally changed my opinion on tanning.
“I’m going on holiday with my friends to Ibiza in a couple of weeks, but this time I’ll be slapping on the factor 50 and covering up.
“I’ll still have lots of fun, but it’s so much more important to be safe rather than sunkissed.”
What is melanoma, what are the symptoms and how can you prevent it?
Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer that has a tendency to spread around the body.
It is diagnosed 16,000 times per year, and tragically takes the lives of 2,340 people per year.
The number of people being diagnosed with melanoma is increasing, and it is the 5th most common cancer in the UK.
But it is also one of the most preventable cancers, with 86 per cent of cases in the UK avoidable.
The best way to protect yourself from melanoma is to be sun safe – wear SPF every day, wear a hat and sunglasses and keep out of the sun in the hottest hours. It is also advised to avoid sunbeds.
People who are fair-skinned, have blue or green eyes, blonde or red hair and a large number of freckles or moles are more likely to get skin cancer.
Surgery is the main treatment for melanoma, particularly if it is found early. This will involve removing the affected tissue in the skin.
Radiotherapy, medicines and chemotherapy are also sometimes used to try and stop the cancer from growing. Treatment depends on the severity of the disease.
What are the symptoms?
The key thing to look out for are changes to an existing mole, or a new mole on your skin.
Most experts recommend using the simple “ABCDE” rule to look for symptoms of melanoma skin cancer, which can appear anywhere on the body.
There are five letters/words to remember:
- Asymmetrical – melanomas usually have two very different halves and are an irregular shape
- Border – melanomas usually have a notched or ragged border
- Colours – melanomas will usually be a mix of two or more colours
- Diameter – most melanomas are usually larger than 6mm in diameter
- Enlargement or elevation – a mole that changes size over time is more likely to be a melanoma
A mole that changes size, shape or colour may be a melanoma.
But other signs to look out for include moles that are:
- Swollen and sore
- Bleeding
- Itchy
- Crusty
How deadly is it?
Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer.
The outlook of a person’s disease depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed.
Survival is better for women than it is for men.
“We don’t know exactly why this is. It may be because women are more likely to see a doctor about their melanoma at an earlier stage,” says Cancer Research UK.
The charity says that generally, statistics show that in England, more than 85 out of every 100 people (more than 85 per cent) will survive their melanoma for 10 years or more after they are diagnosed.
- Around 100 per cent in England diagnosed with melanoma at stage 1 – when the cancer cells are only in the top layer of skin – will survive for five years or more after diagnosis.This drops to 80 per cent for stage 2.
- Some 70 per cent live for a further five years when they are diagnosed in stage 3, which is when the cancer has started to spread to nearby lymph nodes.
- At stage 4, when the melanoma has spread elsewhere in the body, almost 30 per cent survive their cancer for 5 years or more.
Cancer Research says the stage 4 data does not account for age differences. Age can affect outlook and younger people have a better prognosis than older people.
Age can affect outlook and younger people have a better prognosis than older people.
What is melanoma?
Melanocytes are cells in the skin that give us the colour of our skin because they produce a pigment, known as melanin.
When you sit in the sun, melanocytes produce more pigment (a sun tan), which spreads to other skin cells to protect them from the sun’s rays.
But melanocytes are also where cancer starts.
Too much UV causes sunburn, and this is a sign of damage to the skin’s DNA.
The UV triggers changes in the melanocytes, which makes the genetic material become faulty and cause abnormal cell growth.
People who burn easily are more at risk of skin cancer because their cells do not produce as much pigment to protect their skin.
Those with albinism are at the most risk because their skin produces no pigment at all.