UPDATE: |Sky News star Jacquie Beltrao reveals ‘miracle drug’ made her cancer-free after stage 4 diagnosis News

Presenter Jacquie Beltrao has spoken of the “pure joy and relief” after a pioneering drug reversed her stage 4 cancer

A Sky News presenter has opened up about how a ‘miracle’ drug left her cancer-free after a stage 4 cancer diagnosis, admitting it was ‘hard not to plan my funeral’.

Jacquie Beltrao has said that she is feeling ‘very, very lucky’ ahead of her 60th birthday after beating cancer five years ago.

The broadcaster told OK! magazine in an exclusive interview: “My 60th birthday is a big celebration. In some ways turning 60 can fill you with dread, sometimes you feel people can look at you differently, but there were days I never thought I would make it to this point given the severity of my cancer. But here I am.”

She added: “I feel truly blessed and I was ready to have a big party to celebrate life. I have always been a very positive person, trying to find the right mindset to approach life, but almost exactly five years ago when I was told my cancer had spread, it was very hard not to start planning a funeral. But instead, I was planning a 60th birthday. It’s wonderful to be able to say that.”

Jacquie, a gymnast in the 1984 Olympics, was diagnosed with breast cancer on Christmas Eve in 2013. She received the all clear once before, but received the devastating news seven years later that it had returned as stage 4.

Doctors told the mother-of-three that the disease had spread to her legs and spine and that she would never be fully rid of it, leaving her fearing she had just months to live.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d always been positive in my outlook, looking for good news, good outcomes and then it became very hard to see them,” Jacquie recalls. “I didn’t know where to turn. I would have some very dark thoughts. I remember looking up how long people live for from stage 4 cancer and it said a max of two years.”

However, thanks to a pioneering drug called Olaparib, which she credits for saving her life. The targeted therapy, often taken by ovarian cancer sufferers, is used when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and no longer responds to other treatments.

Jacquie said: “In June 2021, I had a scan and the doctor called me to say, ‘You have very, very good results.’ She told me there’s no evidence of the disease at all.

“I was stunned. She explained all of the tumours had gone on the scan, whereas eight weeks ago the cancer could be seen really prominently. She sent me over the scan and it was right, the evidence of cancer had gone. It was all down to this miracle drug. I remember telling Eduardo, the boys and Amelia and there was lots of hugging and crying, pure joy and relief.”

The Irish-born broadcaster lives in South West London with her husband Eduardo. She has a daughter, Amelia, 27, who is a newsreader on TalkSport radio, and sons Tiago, 24, a promotions and publicity executive, and Jorge, 23, an oil and shipping analyst, the Mirror reports.

Jacquie says she still has regular check-ups and said, “I’ve had my life back, I feel very blessed. Obviously, I’m aware that it could come back at any point as I have lived through that experience. I take two tablets of the drug twice a day and although it might sound strange, every time I take them out of the packet I feel grateful.”