RTÉ's Teresa Mannion opens up about her cancer battle

By Anna O'Donoghue

RTÉ presenter Teresa Mannion has opened up about her battle with breast cancer to urge people to “pick up the phone and make an appointment for a mammogram”.

The mother-of-two discovered she had a small tumour of the most aggressive form of cancer, triple-negative (TNBC) after a routine mammogram.

Speaking to this month’s special edition of the RTÉ Guide, Teresa revealed that as she had no tell-tale signs of cancer she just ignored her letter from Breastcheck offering her a free check.

This week we have turned PINK! 20c from every issue sold will be donated to Breast Cancer Ireland! #rteguidepink pic.twitter.com/rZBtJZbg3t

— RTÉ Guide (@RTE_GUIDE) October 3, 2016

It wasn’t until a friend of hers was getting a mammogram and she was “overwhelmed with guilt” and made the decision to book one. It was there they detected a tiny tumour, what she calls "a dot of cancer".

“There was no medication I could take. I didn’t even know there were different kinds of breast cancer and now I was diagnosed with the worst kind. I will never forget the words of the breast surgeon, Professor Michael Kerin, who broke the news to me.

“He said: ‘You have a guardian angel’ and those words stayed with me through the subsequent months.

“We have caught this early so you will be fine”.’

Teresa, who jumped to fame during a weather report on storm Desmond last Christmas, went on to say that her main concern during chemotherapy was losing her hair.

“I had heard all the horror stories about chemotherapy but all I could think of was hair loss,” she said.

“I know it’s weird but losing my hair was the worst thing because you really identify with it. My hair had started to fall out in clumps so that you feel like this shaggy dog with hair everywhere”.

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, the weather reporter stressed that she “dodged a bullet” and would hope that people learns from her story.

“If it even gets one person to pick up the phone and make an appointment for a mammogram, then it will be good”.