Would you keep CANCER A SECRET?

Model Elle Macpherson revealed she kept her battle with the disease hidden - we find out why many others choose to do the same

- GEORGINA FULLER, LOUISE BATY

We all have secrets, but some are bigger than others. For many of us, it would be inconceivable to keep something as earth-shattering as a cancer diagnosis from family and friends. But some cancer patients choose not to divulge their diagnosis.

Recently, Elle Macpherson revealed that she had battled breast cancer secretly seven years ago. Discussing her upcoming memoir, Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself, the Australian supermodel, now 60, also admitted that she opted not to have chemotherapy. She said: ‘It was a shock, it was unexpected, it was confusing, it was daunting in so many ways.’

While the reasons to keep a cancer diagnosis a secret vary, it’s likely the most common is not wanting to worry loved ones. But what happens when that secret is finally discovered?

Famous secrets

Best-selling novelist JACKIE COLLINS died in September 2015, aged 77, six years after being diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. In her last interview, she said she didn’t regret keeping her illness from most people, except her daughters. ‘I did it my way, as Frank Sinatra would say,’ she said. Her sister, actor Joan Collins, then 82, was ‘completely devastated’ to learn of Jackie’s illness just two weeks before her death.

TV icon TRISHA GODDARD revealed in February that she had stage four cancer, which she’d been keeping under wraps for some time. When asked why she’d kept it secret, Trisha, 66, said: ‘I was grappling with how to deal with it myself. Plus I just wanted to work and be me.’

Earlier this year, CATHERINE, PRINCESS OF WALES revealed that she was having cancer treatment. She said she’d delayed disclosing it so she could explain it to her children ‘in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK.’