‘Long story short, I’ve got breast cancer’: Comedian Judith Lucy reveals diagnosis

Comedian Judith Lucy has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer … in a way only she could.In a video uploaded to social media, Lucy matter-of-factly delivers the health update, sandwiched between quick quips about her newly released wellness book and recent faecal transplants.Judith Lucy reveals she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.Simon Schluter“Not so fun update from me,” Lucy says at the start of the Instagram video. “I got an email from BreastScreen Australia, telling me that my mammogram result was a bit weird. May I take this opportunity to say, ladies, for the love of God, keep up with your mammograms.“Long story short, I’ve got breast cancer.”Lucy said three weeks ago she was going to “pick up yet two more syringes of yet another stranger’s turds” for her faecal transplants – following a bad virus she contracted while travelling through the Amazon in South America for an ayahuasca retreat – when she received the email.“I went on last Friday for a lumpectomy, and a doctor – I’m not making this up - called Doctor Fun found more cancer,” Lucy says.The cancer is “relatively non-aggressive”, Lucy shared, adding she is removing both her breasts by the end of this week via mastectomy – despite only one breast being cancerous.“Doctor Fun is amazing. I am in her debt, but we have gone from a lumpectomy to a mastectomy, which I am having Friday week,” she says.“I said, while you’re there, let’s get rid of the other one because, you know something, I have had 40 years of, if I do say so myself, large and spectacular breasts. You had your chance, fellas.“I think I’m quite fine with going bra-free for my last chapter, and my last chapter is going to be very long and healthy.”Lucy then turns to what she dubs the “elephant in the room”: her new wellness book, Well Well Well … My Wellness Odyssey.“There’s nothing like releasing a book about wellness as you’re being diagnosed with breast cancer. Now fortunately, the book does not end with me going, ‘And I’ve never been healthier!’ In fact, kind of the point of the book is that there are no quick fixes, and we should just all be living differently,” Lucy says.The most ironic part about her book, she notes, was the introduction, which she then reads.“I know how lucky I am not to have a more serious health condition. If you have cancer or anything approaching that level of severity, I would stop reading now so that you don’t want to fire me out of a canon or tattoo Donald Trump as one sexy mother on my face next time you see me.“Well, that problem solved!”Between the faecal transplants and breast cancer, Lucy jokes, “we can safely say that the book that has come out is well”.Lucy finishes her video on a more serious note, telling her audience that while the news comes as a shock, she will be OK.“I will have a lot more to say about all of this, as I’m sure you know. I’ll be keeping you abreast of everything, Australia. I really am OK, by the way. I mean, I’m in shock, but I’m OK,” Lucy says at the end of her video.Fellow comedian Geraldine Hickey was quick to comment.“It’ll be a weight off your chest!” she wrote below Lucy’s post.More to comeKayla Olaya is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners