Shortly before her appearance on Big Brother’s Bit Of The Side last night, Carol McGiffin took to Twitter to reveal how excited she was to be making her first TV appearance since undergoing chemotherapy.
She wrote happily: “I'm doing @bbbots tonight, first bit of telly for over a year due to unforseen circumstances…
“Can't wait to see you @Rylan xx”
And she looked radiant as she sat on the panel of the Channel 5 spin-off show… although her good friend Rylan got very emotional as he introduced the brave breast cancer survivor to the show’s audience.
Twitter was soon flooded by messages of support for Carol, with viewers revealing how happy they were to have the former Loose Women star back on their telly screens.
Carol first opened up about her battle with breast cancer earlier this year, telling The Mirror that she was diagnosed with the disease after finding a lump in her breast last February.
She said: "I knew from the moment I saw the doctor it was cancer. She seemed pretty shocked at the size of the lump.
“It was a bit like, ‘Oh, right then. I know what this is about.’”
Now, after undergoing a mastectomy, as well as extensive sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the no-nonsense television star is now in remission.
And she is keen to get her life back to normal.
She told The Sunday People: “I kept it a secret because I didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me.
"I feel it is over now and I've got through it. I just want to be able to go out without my hat on and for people not to be bothered. I just want life to get back to normal."
Following her appearance on BBBots, she retweeted an image that Rylan had shared of himself cuddling up to her before the show began.
He wrote: “The best thing about my day was getting a cuddle from my @McGiff - adore this woman with all my heart.”
She added firmly: “Love him!”
It’s good to see that Carol McGiffin is back on our screens, isn’t it? Fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing her again very soon!