Ex-MP says screening vital after cancer all-clear

A former MP who has been given the all-clear from breast cancer is urging people not to miss screening appointments.

Vicky Ford, who was Conservative MP for Chelmsford from 2017 to 2024, was diagnosed following a routine breast screening in December 2024 and revealed she was free of the disease following treatment.

"I was very lucky to have had that mammogram because my lump was very, very deep down in my breast," she said.

"I don't think I would have felt it for a while, just by checking."

Ford said she had been told three out of 10 women who were invited for mammograms did not attend, and urged them: "If you get that message, if you get that letter, please go."

She had surgery and radiotherapy after the lump was found in her breast, and will now have annual mammograms.

Women aged 50 to 71, who are registered with a GP as female, are offered a breast screening appointment once every three years.

The 58-year-old told BBC Essex breakfast presenter Sonia Watson: "If they find a cancer, the sooner they find it, the easier that it is going to be to treat.

"And that is going to be better for you. It's going to be better for the people that love you."

Ford shared her news in a Facebook post last week, where she urged others to attend their scans when given an appointment.

"It caught my cancer early and I could not have been in better, kinder or more caring hands throughout," she wrote.

"If you haven't made a new year's resolution yet then please, please make keeping up to date with cancer scans the one resolution you keep."

The former MP also spoke of the care and support she received from staff at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, where she was treated, and from a charity called Maggie's.

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