Journalist Julia Baird reveals cancer diagnosis that had her 'gripped with terror'
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Version 0 of 1. The Australian journalist Julia Baird has spoken about how being diagnosed with cancer had her “gripped with terror”. Baird, who is one of the hosts of ABC’s The Drum, wrote in her column for the New York Times on Wednesday that she was hospitalised in June after experiencing agonising pain, and it was suspected she had advanced ovarian cancer. She wrote the cancer that was discovered was a “mass the size of a basketball, living in between my belly button and my spine”. Her surgeon told her the diagnosis was serious, and she elected to have surgery to remove the tumour. “Your world narrows to a slit when facing a diagnosis like that; suddenly very little matters. I told my family and some close friends, then went into lockdown,” she wrote. “In the early hours of the morning I woke gripped with terror and quietly contemplated the prospect of death before I rose to get my son and daughter ready for school.” Baird’s surgery took five hours and was followed by eight days in intensive care. She wrote that her prognosis is good. “My prognosis is good, but like others, I will need to live with the fear of return. This week, my blood tests came back clear of cancer. But my scar runs the length of my torso; I feel permanently altered. It will feel strange returning to normal life,” she wrote. |