Rita Ora suffered crippling panic attacks amid fears of being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Rita Ora
The 30-year-old pop star has revealed she's spent years worrying about cancer, after her mother Vera battled the condition in 2005 and had a partial mastectomy.
Rita - who has taken the BRCA test, the hereditary breast cancer test, and does not have the gene - shared: "I see these things saying check yourself for lumps but my mother didn’t have a lump she had a sharp pain, and she still went and got checked.
"I have done the BRCA test and the gene test myself and, luckily, I don’t have the gene.
"But I still check myself regularly. Genetically, there was no history of breast cancer in my family before my mother, but she still got it. There are loads of tutorials online which I have used. You have to be aware of your body. But you can also call your GP to ask. There are loads of ways of accessing the information.
"Scans in the UK have dropped 80 percent since Covid struck, and a million women haven’t had any check-ups. The backlog of cancer treatment is crazy. And some people are too afraid to go to hospital, which is totally understandable, but you have to go and get checked."
Rita subsequently explained how her concerns prompted panic attacks.
She told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "They’re such a hard experience to explain.
"Growing up when I was younger I didn’t know what a panic attack was. I don’t think a lot of teenagers realise what they are. You can’t breathe, your chest feels tight, you lose your vision - you go into a wormhole and this comes from personal experiences.
"I found music is a healer and I think I’ve gone through a lot to make sure I don’t get to that phase of feeling like I can’t breathe again.
"Aromatherapy, therapy in general, exercise, meditation and getting checked, giving yourself the peace of mind - these all help me stay calm now."
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