Champion ice skater from Gosport urges people to raise funds for cancer research after overcoming the disease 3 times

Sixty-year-old Debbie Hood, who is the reigning British adult free skating champion, first discovered a lump in her breast 20 years ago.

With her mum working as a nurse at the time, she was encouraged to get it checked out immediately.

The mum-of-two said: ‘Because I’ve always been such a tiny person I noticed the lump straight away. I told my mum and she helped me look into it. The doctor said I needed a biopsy and then we got a phonecall from the consultant who said: “I think it’s best that we got rid of this.”

‘Within a year, the exact same thing happened in the exact same place. So I had another operation to remove it and thankfully because we had caught it early, I didn’t require any further treatment.’

The skater, who has travelled the world performing in ice shows experienced another brush with cancer when she noticed a mole had changed.

Debbie said: ‘There was a mole on my face on my left lower cheek and it didn’t look right so, once again I had that checked. I had it removed and that too turned out to be skin cancer.

‘I’ve never needed chemotherapy or radiotherapy because I’ve always been really vigilant and caught everything immediately. I feel it’s as much our responsibility to tell the doctor something is wrong as it is theirs. It’s important not to ignore anything. A tiny bump that you think is nothing could have huge consequences.’

Only 53.3 per cent of cancers are diagnosed at an early stage in Portsmouth but diagnosing cancer earlier is one of the most powerful ways to improve survival. The chances of successful treatment are much higher for almost all types of cancer if it's found at an early stage, stage one or two.

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As Cancer Research UK marks its 20th birthday on February 4 – World Cancer Day, Debbie hopes her story will encourage people to support the charity that has helped her reach her goals.

‘There are people working so hard to find a cure and help people manage and beat cancer,’ she added.

‘There cannot be a better reason for supporting something, than supporting the doctors and scientists trying to save lives.’

Cancer Research UK spent over £34m in the south east last year on some of the UK’s leading scientific and clinical research.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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