Townsville’s Rhiannon Anderson shares tumour removal and hysterectomy journey in honest Instagram post
A MasterChef finalist has revealed she had a massive growth removed from her stomach after noticing something wrong during filming the popular series. *WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
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Townsville MasterChef finalist Rhiannon Anderson is warning others to look after their health in 2025, revealing she had a ‘melon-sized growth’ removed from her stomach.
The ovarian cancer ambassador says she’s “disappointed” in herself for ignoring her health because she was “too busy” — encouraging others to put themselves first this year.
Signing off 2024 with a raw and honest post, Ms Anderson shared how 2024 was “the hardest in my life” with her personal health, but was entering 2025 with a “renewed gratitude”.
In July, the talented cook underwent an operation to remove a ‘melon-sized’ fibroid, a non-cancerous growth, in her stomach as well as a hysterectomy.
It was while competing on season 15 of MasterChef Australia in 2023 that Ms Anderson first noticed something was very wrong.
“When I laid down I could feel something in my stomach and I was kind of like ‘Oh, that's weird’. It was sort of as if I was pregnant, but there wasn’t a baby,” she told the Bulletin.
“When I was on MasterChef I would get ready in the mornings and put my jeans on and because it went right across [the tumour], it would make me actually quite sick.”
Placing second on MasterChef and following the huge whirlwind after the show ended, Ms Anderson said she didn’t get it checked out initially but decided to get an ultrasound in August 2023.
“I could feel it getting bigger. I went and got an ultrasound and they said there’s quite a sizeable fibroid,” she said.
“After that I just left it. I was too busy, but then it got to the point where it grew so much that I couldn’t even wear tights across my stomach because it would make me feel sick.”
Ms Anderson said it was only through speaking with Dr Sally Aubrey as part of their work on the committee of the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation that she realised she needed to do something about it.
“I told her ‘I’ve got this fibroid’. She felt my stomach and said ‘that is ridiculous, we need to get that out’. I had to find a six week calendar where I could actually book it and then have the surgery.
“She said to me we all knew it was going to be big, once [the surgeons] went in they were like ‘Oh my god this is far bigger than we imagined’.”
With her health improving ‘instantly’ following the surgery, Ms Anderson said in her post that she regrets not putting her own health first, saying ‘to say I’m disappointed in myself is an understatement’.
She said she still struggles with swelling and soreness, but is now able to get back to what she loves doing including cooking, travelling and spending time with her children and grandchildren.
An national ambassador of the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, which she began working with after losing her mother to the disease in 2021, Ms Anderson hosted an event in October this year at the Metropole Hotel which raised $55,000 for ovarian cancer research.
She said it was hard to share that she had been neglecting her own health after encouraging other women to look after theirs.
“It was kind of one of those things where I didn’t know whether to share it,” she said.
“I was shaking yesterday when I posted it, I do spend a lot of time talking to women and raising money and saying look after your health and then I quite literally didn’t do it.”
Overwhelmed by comments of support and messages from women who are going through or have gone through similar health issues, Ms Anderson said she was glad to end 2024 with an honest post that showed the lowlights, not just the highlights.
“I’ve done lots of incredible things, but I was like it’s time to post the reality,” she said.
“I just want people to know that it’s not always just rosy. People see the highlights but it’s been a very, long hard road.”
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Originally published as Townsville’s Rhiannon Anderson shares tumour removal and hysterectomy journey in honest Instagram post
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