A mum of three has told how Covid saved her life when she was hospitalised with the virus and got a chest scan that revealed she had breast cancer. Retired nurse Jan Dea, 61, is now in remission but her consultant told her that by the time she had noticed symptoms from the aggressive cancer it would have been too late.
Jan had undergone all her regular mammograms but the traditional screening tool can be less reliable for women with dense tissue. On mammograms it comes out white as do tumours - making them harder to spot.
Jan, from Stockton-on-Tees, who had worked as a stroke nurse for 20 years, found herself back at North Tees Hospital, her old workplace, when she got Covid in late 2020. Severe coronavirus can lead to blood clots on the lungs so she underwent a CT (computed tomography) scans of her chest which revealed the tumour.
