I thought, “I’m going to lose my boob, Martina Navratilova accepts blame for cancer diagnosis after admitting she let mammogram check-up ‘slip’

Martina Navratilova has admitted she is in part to blame for the shock diagnosis of her breast cancer. The nine-times Wimbledon singles champion who has described the news as her ‘personal 9/11’ said she cried when she was diagnosed in February. But in a candid interview she revealed that she felt it was in part her fault because she went four years without a mammogram check-up.

Talking to chat show host Larry King in New York, Navratilova said she had let her check ups ‘slip’.

She told King her last mammogram before her diagnosis was at the end of 2005. ‘…I was still on the tour playing my last year and I thought I’ll get it later, then after I finished my career I had knee surgery, I’m like I’ll do it later… it just kept missing.

‘I didn’t take it seriously then finally in January I thought another year’s gonna go by and I hadn’t realised it was four years, I thought maybe it was two years since my last mammogram.’

‘I was lucky that this classification happened at the tail end of the four years rather than the beginning.’

‘I was scared when I first got into the news, but immediately I got into the solutions, and thought what do we need to do to get out of this.’
Luckily for Navratilova, she had not left it too late.

‘The prognosis of someone with DCIS is excellent,’ said Dr Shelley Hwang, a breast surgeon at the University of California.

‘There’s only a 1 per cent chance that anyone with this diagnosis would die of breast cancer.’

The 53-year-old star who retired from competitive tennis only three years ago, said the news was a total shock because of her disciplined healthy lifestyle.

‘I stay in shape and eat right and it happened to me. Another year and I could have been in big trouble.

‘Initially I thought I was going to keep it quiet. Then when I found out why I found out what I have and I was so lucky that we had found it early because of the mammogram that I really owed this to the women out there that are putting it off to say get that mammogram every year because it could save your life.’

But even now, she does not want the cancer to get in the way of her tennis. The plan is that she will start her radiation treatment in Paris, which means that she will be able to do some television commentary on the French Open in the city.

‘I still want to do my work,’ Navratilova said.

After Paris, she will head straight across the Channel for the Wimbledon Championships. ‘I’m not the sort of person who wants to sit around feeling sorry for myself,’ she said.

Yesterday she spoke on show Good Morning America about her feelings when she first got the news. ‘ I was alone in my house. I was shocked, overwhelmed and devastated.
‘I am 53 years old, a lifelong athlete, strong, healthy and had eaten nutritiously my entire life.

‘Those positive aspects of my life only fuelled the “why me?” questions those first few days.’

But she added: ‘The bad news is it’s cancer – the good news is that it hasn’t spread.’

The 18-time Grand Slam singles winner said her first thoughts when she learned she had cancer in her left breast were not about death, but fears she would be disfigured.

‘I thought, “I’m going to lose my boob and then my hair, and I don’t have that much”.’

But doctors say her prognosis is good, particularly as they caught the cancer early.

‘It was the best- case scenario you could imagine for detecting breast cancer,’ said Dr Mindy Nagle, her gynaecologist and friend.

Miss Navratilova has a non-invasive form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, better known as DCIS, which was confined to the milk ducts and had not spread to the breast tissue.

The Czech-born tennis star underwent a lumpectomy on March 15 to remove cancerous tissue.

She said she was having radiation therapy because her cancer was Grade 3 – ‘the more aggressive type’.

She is taking part in a web chat in the U.S. today so women can ask questions. ‘I want to ask questions myself.

‘How does radiation hit you? I know it makes you tired,’ she said.

Urging women to have yearly mammograms, Miss Navratilova said: ‘By the time it becomes a lump, it’s too late.’

The openly gay tennis star is said to be engaged to 47-year-old former Russian beauty queen.