Singer Elaine Paige opened up about her heartbreaking cancer battle after she was misdiagnosed by her doctor several times.
The 78-year-old star appeared on the latest episode of Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show and detailed how she finally came to find out about her diagnosis.
Elaine Paige on secret cancer battle
Elaine explained that towards the end of her run for Sunset Boulevard in 1996, she found a lump in her breast and admitted she kept “putting these things off as one does”.
“Eventually I went to my gynaecologist and explained, and he sort of had a fumble about and said, ‘Oh no, it’s nothing, it’s your age, it’s menopause or early menopause.’ And he put me off and that was that. And another few weeks went by, and it was getting worse and bigger. I went back again and he again rejected me, passed me off and said, ‘it’s fine, it’s nothing, it’s not cancerous, don’t worry about it.’ This happened three times,” she said.
“I’ll never forgive him for it. Really lucky for me, it was a slow-growing cancerous lump…. They sent it for a biopsy. Anyway, it came back and the doctor that had done this, Mr. Elliot, his name was and this was a Sunday, ‘I need you to come in first thing Monday morning, tomorrow morning for surgery. I need to remove this lump.’ And I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. And I said to him, ‘Are you telling me I’ve got cancer?’ And he said, well, ‘I can’t say that for definite right now. That’s why I need you to come in to remove this lump so that we can send it away for analysis. And then I can tell you.’ I just felt sick… But eventually, of course, it turned out to be cancer.”
‘It was harrowing’
At the time, Elaine had one more week left of Sunset Boulevard and told her doctor that she couldn’t come in the next day due to having a show.
However, he insisted she had to come in, explaining he was “decisive about it and made me realise how serious it was”.
Elaine went in, had a general anesthetic, and had the lump removed.
“I came out with a load of wadding and goodness knows what and went on doing the show that night and the following week. For the whole of the week, nobody knew. The only person I knew was my dresser. It was harrowing because you’re facing your own mortality and it sort of puts everything into perspective,” she continued.
When she returned to work, Elaine said she gave “some of the most emotional shows” she had ever done, stating that her “emotions were so high”.
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