Olivia Attwood has declared 'you can't die out of embarrassment' as she joins calls for women and girls to check for signs of breast cancer, years after her own scare. The former Love Island star, 35, previously discovered 'quite a sizeable lump' on her breast in 2020, which was biopsied and found to be benign but later removed.
Opening Up About Her Experience
She has spoken candidly about her experience to urge individuals to 'look after your health' and hopes to 'spread awareness' about detecting early signs of breast cancer. Recounting the scare, the Loose Women panellist described feeling something 'kind of hard' on her breast. She told the Press Association: 'I went and saw a breast specialist, and he said there was quite a sizeable lump there. He decided that the best thing for me to do was to have it removed and biopsied – luckily, it was benign.'
She added: 'No one wants to find a lump. It's not a nice thing. It wasn't cancerous, it was just that it was just fatty tissue – so everything in my case was fine.'
Lessons Learned and Advice
Reflecting on what her experience taught her, she shared: 'It's helped me know what I'm looking for, and how to examine myself properly; I think a lot of women don't actually know how to do this.' Offering advice, she said: 'Don't be fearful, and definitely don't be embarrassed. People that examine you for a living… They do this all day, every single day. You can't die out of embarrassment. You need to get out of your own head and realise that these checks could save your life.'
Raising Awareness Campaign
She also stressed 'the importance of raising awareness' for breast cancer and urged young people to 'encourage your friends and family to check themselves'. Olivia has teamed up with Tombola and Breast Cancer Now for a new campaign advocating for this cause. She discussed the issue with Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle on her Olivia's House podcast, released on June 18. In the episode, they talked about how young women and girls are often 'scared' to check their breasts, while Nadine reflected on her former bandmate Sarah Harding, who died aged 39 in 2021 due to breast cancer.
