Good Morning Britain's Dr Sarah Jarvis revealed that she suffered a major health scare earlier this year. Appearing on Thursday's show, she told hosts Charlotte Hawkins and Sean Fletcher about her "scary" experience, but emphasised that she is fine now. She explained: "I've had a breast cancer scare earlier this year as a result of a screening. That's a small price to pay if it is going to save my life. I would absolutely recommend everyone to have it."
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WATCH: GMB's Dr Sarah Jarvis reveals health scare live on air
Asked if she was ok by Charlotte, Sarah continued: "Yes, and the people were absolutely incredible I cannot say how wonderful the team were, I got called back.
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"I had my screening because I have screenings for everything, I just assumed I'd done it. Just before Christmas I got some quiet time, I got my dentist check done, I got my car MOT, I had my cervical screening, I had my breast screening, job done. I didn't expect, because you don’t, to get a letter back. It was really scary but within two weeks I'd gone back. I'd had an amazing follow up and had the all clear on the NHS."
Doctor Sarah Jarvis is standing in for Hilary Jones
She then urged viewers: "If you have symptoms go in. While we know screenings were paused for some things in the height of the pandemic, it is absolutely now coming back on track."
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On the show, the presenters discussed the fact that research in the UK has suggested lowering the breast screening age to 40 to save more lives. Sarah revealed the screenings are currently thought to "save 1,300 lives a year by picking up cancer at an earlier stage", with it "more likely to be treated successfully". But she admitted there were some concerns.
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"By extending it earlier to the age of 40 rather than 50 or 47 as in some parts of England, we could save another 400 women a year," she shared. "But starting at this earlier stage will pick up a lot more cases that are so-called false positives, so a lot more women will be scared.
"You have to screen six times as many women as you do in their 50s or 60s in order to pick up one case, and the question that is difficult to answer is whether those cancers would have been slow growing and picked up anyway by the later screening."
