Jacquie Beltrao’s "incurable" cancerous lump on her breast has shrunk to half its original size.
The Sky News sports presenter – who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time after first being told she had the condition in 2013 – has given an encouraging update, and admitted the shrinking "was unheard of".
She told HELLO! magazine: "I was stunned and so relieved.
"I was told that even if the tumour inside my breast had remained the same size, that would be a good result. But to find it had shrunk was unheard of."
The 55-year-old former Olympic gymnast was devastated by her recent diagnosis, and she "didn’t realise" the illness could return.
She said: "Facing it again felt like a kick in the stomach. When I was told it was incurable, I burst into tears and thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going to die.’ "
Jacquie was devastated by the prospect of never seeing her daughter’s wedding, her sons’ graduations or of becoming a grandmother.
While she isn’t "out of the woods yet", doctors have now told her it is "possible to keep the cancer under control".
She revealed the sad news of her diagnosis in June in a video shared on social media after she had already started treatment.
Jacquie told her followers: "For the last four weeks, me and my family have been walking through a living nightmare.
"But I am where I am. I’ve got a great medical team, friends, family."
She has revealed she went public with her battle because she didn’t want to pretend everything was normal when she returned to work.
The star explained: "In lockdown I took my own advice, did a check, found a tiny little lump just here.
"I had it biopsied, turns out it’s a grade three breast cancer once again. Much nastier than the first one I had.
"I’m sharing this because it felt weird going back to Sky and going on social media again pretending everything was shiny and fun when it wasn’t."