As a plus-size fashion expert who focuses on fit and style — and who absolutely loves being in the water — swimwear is a favorite of mine. But I know firsthand that it is also a category that inspires a lot of shopping anxiety, especially when the best plus-size swim options are online only, meaning you never know what you are going to get.

A mother who felt she was being “eaten away” after hot flushes led to an incurable blood cancer diagnosis in her late 50s has urged women not to ignore symptoms. In the summer of 2022, Barbara Geraghty-Whitehead, 58, a school inclusion manager who lives in Cheshire, began to experience hot flushes, dizziness and she developed an ear infection. She said she “put it to the back of (her) mind”, but her symptoms persisted – and eventually, after months of hesitation, she visited her GP in September 2022 and underwent blood tests. Within a matter of hours, she received a phone call from her doctor, saying that they were concerned about how high her white blood cells were and that they suspected it could be cancer. One week later, after further tests, Geraghty-Whitehead was told she has chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and it is incurable. “You say you want to carry on as much as normal, but from that second nothing else was going to be normal anymore,” she told PA Real Life. “I wanted to go in and for them to say, ‘No, it was a mistake, it’s something else,’ but they didn’t, they said it was CML.” Geraghty-Whitehead started taking chemotherapy tablets that same day – and despite experiencing side effects of fatigue, nausea, acid reflux, and a loss of taste, nearly one year later she has responded well to treatment and has been able to see her daughter get married in Cyprus. After nearly ignoring her own symptoms, she wants to encourage others not to “make excuses”, as “people need to know the signs so they can get diagnosed early”. “When I was first diagnosed, you don’t know where to start and that in itself is overwhelming, but the support I’ve received has been fantastic,” Geraghty-Whitehead said. “I think about [my diagnosis] every day and it is hard and I do get upset, but now I’ve just got to face the fact that this is the new me. “I’m never going to be the person that I was before but I’m going to recreate the new me.” Geraghty-Whitehead said she almost ignored her cancer symptoms and attributed her hot flushes to warm weather and “thought no more of it”. She said she did not think it was related to menopause, as she had already been taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches for years to treat her bone pain. “I started not feeling right and I couldn’t figure out what it was, but I didn’t do anything about it – I just left it,” she explained. She added: “I never ever got hot flushes. Even though I was put on HRT patches, it was mainly for my bone pain, so I just put it to the back of my mind and I thought no more of it.” Looking back now, she realises she should have acted sooner – but on September 16, she visited her GP and underwent blood tests. Days later, on the day of the Queen’s funeral, she found herself sat in an empty hospital waiting room, preparing for further blood tests – and by the end of that week, on September 23, Geraghty-Whitehead received the news she has CML and the following minutes felt like “a blur”. “Everything happened so fast, it was just like a roller-coaster,” she said. “I think it was worse waiting for the blood test results because I didn’t know what type of cancer it was, whether I was going to live, whether I was going to die. “But all I wanted was to get the very first tablet into my body, as I felt like I was being eaten away because it was in my blood and your blood travels everywhere.” Geraghty-Whitehead started treatment the same day she was diagnosed, which she said was the “first positive move”. Although she was told her CML is incurable, doctors reassured her other patients had responded well to the chemotherapy tablets she needed to take daily, and this gave her hope. For more information and support, visit Leukaemia Care’s website here: leukaemiacare.org.uk Read More 9 arthritis myths we all need to stop believing What happens at a sexual health check-up? 9 key signs of leukaemia, as awareness is called ‘non-existent’ Cancer-hit dad who planned own funeral outlives three-week prognosis What happens at a sexual health check-up? 9 arthritis myths we all need to stop believing

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Broadcasting veteran Anne Diamond has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The GB News presenter said she had received the diagnosis the same day as finding out she was to be made OBE. After beginning her career in regional news, Diamond went on to work for both ITV and the BBC, becoming a star of daytime TV in the 1980s and 1990s. She presented programmes like BBC One’s Good Morning with Anne And Nick, TV-am’s Good Morning Britain and TV Weekly. She joined GB News in 2022 to host weekend breakfast shows with Stephen Dixon, though has been off air for six months. Speaking to GB News’ Dan Wootton, she revealed she had undergone a double mastectomy in her “fight against breast cancer”, which she described as “a long journey”. “I haven’t been on a world cruise, which is what I know social media has been saying… because I’m well known now for loving cruises,” she said. “It’s been a fight against breast cancer. That’s what it’s been. It’s been a long journey. And five months later, I’m still not at the end of the journey, but I’m through it enough to come back to work.” Diamond recalled how she had learned the news on the same morning she was told via email that she had been awarded an OBE for her campaigning on cot deaths. She and her then-husband Mike Hollingsworth lost their son Sebastian in 1990 after he died from sudden infant death syndrome (Sids) – commonly called cot death. Diamond joined forces with the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), now known as The Lullaby Trust, and the Department of Health to launch the successful Back to Sleep campaign. She was made OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to public health and charity. “It was a wonderful moment and that was like 9.30 in the morning,” she told GB News. “But I knew then, because I’d already seen my GP, that I had to go to a breast cancer screening thing later in the morning. I thought I would just go for a mammogram, and a couple of tests and I’d be free in an hour. “I spent the entire morning at my local hospital where they did everything, biopsies, X-rays, CT scans, a couple of mammograms, everything, and by lunchtime I was still there. “And a lovely lady came with a lanyard around her neck that said MacMillan Cancer Care and I knew then it was serious.” Diamond added that she did not have advice for others as she was “still going through it”, but added that she was “well enough” to return to work. The presenter said she has had a full mastectomy and a “load of radiotherapy”. “So it’s been a journey, but I’m not pretending for a minute that I am extraordinary, because I am fully aware that a quarter of women in this country are going through what I’ve just gone through and I don’t have any advice to give. Diamond will return to GB News on Saturday to host Breakfast with Dixon. Read More Chris Hemsworth thanks wife Elsa Pataky for her ‘forgiveness’ Mother sparks debate after ‘shaming’ parent who wouldn’t give her daughter a slice of birthday cake Prince Harry – latest: Duke lands in California after ‘last stay’ in Frogmore following bombshell testimony Everything we know about Jamie Foxx’s health condition 7 things fitness experts want you to know about exercise during a heatwave The £4 hay fever tablet that ‘cures all symptoms’

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