Loose Women star Carol McGiffin makes poignant vow after breast cancer fight

At 64, most women might think twice about getting into a bikini – and especially after having had a mastectomy. But not feisty former Loose Women presenter Carol McGiffin. She wears hers on the beach loud and proud 10 years after her breast cancer diagnosis.

Now living in France with husband Mark Cassidy, she insists the last thing she’s ever going to be is self-conscious. “Not about the fact I’ve only got one boob, no – maybe only because my body has changed as I get older,” she told OK!. “I look back at pictures of me at 22 and think, ‘Oh, I don’t look like that any more’. But it doesn’t stop me wearing a bikini and going to the beach. I don’t get hung up on it – life’s too short.”

Carol reveals her defiant outlook on life in an interview while sunning herself on a break in St Tropez, an hour-and-a-half from their home in the South of France. Looking back, she tells how 43-year-old TV producer Mark – who she secretly married in Thailand in 2018 – was a “total angel” throughout her treatment and road to recovery, which led to her left breast being removed.

Carol and Mark were secretly married in 2018

Outspoken Carol and mild-mannered Mark are the first to admit they are like chalk and cheese. But it’s clear the bond between them has stayed strong as Carol talks about her life after her diagnosis with rare triple-negative cancer. "I’m feeling good – happy. And, yes, it’s a bit of a milestone,” she says. “They say if you can pass 10 years after cancer, you’re almost in the clear. I don’t like to think like that, but it is amazing I’ve made it 10 years.”

“I had the triple negative and all the stuff I read about it was, ‘You can’t have hormone treatment’, or, ‘There’s a bigger chance of it returning…’ The fact it hasn’t as far as I know is quite unbelievable. I keep low-key and hope to God it doesn’t come back.” But she admits she’s had her low points too. “Sometimes you think, ‘There’s no point in planning too much, or having a breast reconstruction, because it’s going to come back and that’s going to be that’,” she says.

“I kept putting off breast reconstruction for that reason. Now I feel like it’s too late for all that. I was getting checked out for every twinge at the beginning. Now, I don’t. I feel good for my age so I don’t want the stress of constantly searching for something that’s not there.”

Carole’s younger sister Tracy died of breast cancer at 53 in 2017. “She was way too young,” says Carol. “I remember her saying, ‘Well, you got through it so I’m going to be OK’.’’ It’s no wonder Carol’s all about seizing the day. “I’ve always had a ‘do it now’ attitude,” she says. “Mark and I have always done things spontaneously – book a train to Paris, take that flight, and drink the wine.”