2024 has turned out to be something of an ordeal for the Royal Family, with the King, the Princess of Wales, and Sarah, Duchess of York all receiving treatment for cancer.
Sarah Ferguson credits her sister with an intervention that turned out to have been a life-saver.
She was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, a dangerous form of skin cancer, in January 2024, just a year after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. She confessed to having almost skipped the appointment with a skin specialist that resulted in a life-saving intervention.
She told The Sun: “I had almost missed the appointment as I couldn’t face a journey into central London on a hot summer’s day and thought I would put it off.”
She added: “It was only when I mentioned this by chance to my sister Jane, who had called me from her home in Australia, that she went into bossy older sibling mode and insisted I went. That check-up, and the treatment I underwent, saved my life.”
A spokesman for the Duchess explained that the cancerous moles had initially been spotted at the private King Edward VII hospital in London during surgery for breast cancer.
He explained: ”Her dermatologist asked that several moles were removed and analysed at the same time as the duchess was undergoing reconstructive surgery following her mastectomy, and one of these has been identified as cancerous.”
Had it not been for that cancer surgery, her spokesman added, the dangerous moles might easily have been missed.
He said: “She believes her experience underlines the importance of checking the size, shape, colour and texture …and emergence of new moles that can be a sign of melanoma.”
The 65-year-old duchess blames her skin cancer on childhood sunbathing, saying that the importance of sunscreen wasn’t as well-known when she was growing up in the 1960s and Seventies.
As she was with her initial breast cancer diagnosis, the duchess was very open about her treatment, urging other women to get checked and using her influence to raise awareness about breast cancer. The growing tumour had been identified during a routine screening and Sarah has urged other women to make sure they have regular check-ups.
On her podcast,Tea Talks with the Duchess and Sarah, she stressed: “I want every single person that is listening to this podcast to go and get checked. “I’m taking this as a real gift to me to change my life, to nurture myself.
She added that from now on she would “stop trying to fix everyone else” and start “taking myself seriously”.
“Now is my chance,” she said. “This extraordinary position I’m in right now – it means there’s no choice.
“I can’t make another excuse. I have to go through this operation and I have to be well and strong.”