Five's Trisha has breast cancer

Trisha Goddard has been on Five since 2005

TV talk show presenter Trisha Goddard is being treated for breast cancer, it has been announced.

A lump was discovered during a routine mammogram three weeks ago, requiring her to be absent from her Five TV show Trisha for two weeks.

"She may possibly need, or choose to have, chemotherapy," said Goddard's husband Peter Gianfrancesco.

Goddard's business partner, Malcolm Allsop, said she would "come through this as she has with other setbacks".

He said that Goddard planned to return to the studio at the end of the month.

'Strong'

According to a spokesman, a tumour was removed immediately after the lump was found.

Doctors took lymph nodes samples for a biopsy, which showed a micro cancer cell present in one of the nodes.

Trisha does not want to feel like a sick person

Malcolm Allsop, business partner

"We hoped that we could handle this in private," said Gianfrancesco, who lives with the TV presenter and their two children in Norfolk.

"But following a number of inquiries from newspapers, we thought it best to put the record straight."

"Trisha does not want to feel like a sick person," said Allsop, who described his business partner as "strong".

"When she had her last medical last year, the doctor said she had the fitness level of an endurance athlete".

Goddard, 50, presented her daytime talk show on ITV1 for six years before moving to Five.

She previously worked in Australia for 13 years as a TV reporter, presenter and government adviser on mental health.

Five chief executive Jane Lighting called her "a much-valued member of the Five family".

"We wish her all the very best for a speedy recovery," she added.