Roxy Jacenko: PR queen’s shock breast cancer diagnosis

EXCLUSIVE: Roxy Jacenko has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer just three weeks after husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading.

ROXY Jacenko has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer just three weeks after husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading. Picture: Supplied.

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ROXY Jacenko has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer just three weeks after husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading.

The 36-year-old mother of two spoke of the shocking diagnosis to The Daily Telegraph just days after receiving her test results.

“The timing is extraordinary,” the star publicist said.

“What I have experienced in the past three weeks is the most shocking thing I have ever experienced. I don’t think there is anything that could shock me more now.”

On doctor’s advice, Jacenko was today set to undergo a “partial removal” of the lump in her left breast, which she discovered while showering last week.

But doctors delayed the surgery yesterday as the cancer “is larger than first suspected, so more testing is required”.

Jacenko said the health scare had hit hard on the heels of her husband’s imprisonment last month.

“I reckon I am still in shock from the first hit,” she said.

Jacenko said she told Curtis the news during a six-minute phone call — the maximum time allowed from Parklea Correctional Centre.

“It is not like he can pick up the phone any time, so when he  does  phone  it  is  for  a very short period of time,” ­Jacenko said.

“He happened to phone when I was at the specialist, so I just told him then.” She said Curtis took the news badly.

Difficult year: Roxy Jacenko, publicist and author.. Picture: Chris McKeen

“Obviously he has got no control to be able to assist with anything, so it is particularly challenging for him. He is a broken person, an absolutely broken person.”

Jacenko said the stress of Curtis’s court case may have played a role in her health ­crisis.

“I am heartbroken but the reality of it is if this (Curtis going to prison) hadn’t have happened, there is nothing to say I wouldn’t have got this (cancer),” she said.

“Could this (Curtis’s jailing) have added to it? You know what? I am not going to say no. Of course, I think any added aggro in someone’s life can lead to things like this but it is no fault of Oli’s. It is in my family, mum had it.”

Jacenko’s mother Doreen Davis, who underwent a mastectomy a decade ago, said she has no doubt her daughter will beat the disease.

Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis leave NSW Supreme Court for sentencing hearings for his insider trading conviction. Picture: Craig Greenhill

“She will tackle this head on as she does with everything, exactly as I did 10 years ago,” Ms Davis said.

“I am sure, now we are 10 years down the line with breast cancer treatment ­advances, her treatments will be as positive as mine were.”

Within days, Jacenko will undergo surgery to have a “partial removal” and will know 10 days later how far the cancer has progressed.

“Then it is a guessing game ... you really don’t know any more until 10 days after”

“They will remove the lump and all the surrounding tissue to ensure they get a clean enough cut to make sure it isn’t anywhere else in the tissue,” she said.

“They will take one of the lymph nodes and, while you’re under, they assess that and decide whether they take the whole lot.

“Then it is a guessing game ... you really don’t know any more until 10 days after.”

Jacenko said it would only be at that 10-day mark that exactly how tough the road ahead would be.

“As for treatment; obviously radiation is a given,” she said. “It will be every day for the next six weeks and/or chemotherapy. But chemotherapy isn’t decided until after that 10-day mark, when they have had all the checks of what they took out.”

Jacenko, owner of Sweaty Betty PR and considered one of the hardest working publicists in Sydney, said this ­“hurdle” won’t slow her down.

“Do I slow down? I have never been any different in my life,” she said.

“There is no proof to say that stress brings this kind of things on. I don’t slow down.

“The reality of it is I have even more of a responsibility now to make sure I deliver not only for my family and ­provide them comfort and so on, but I also have a due diligence to my customers and my staff.

“There are a lot of people who   work   a   lot   harder than me.”

Jacenko, who found the lump in her left breast while showering 10 days ago, wants her diagnosis to serve as a ­reminder to all young women to get their breasts checked.

“I thought from reading all the information out there I was meant to wait until 40 until I got a mammogram,” she said.

And while she has been shaken by her diagnosis, ­Jacenko said she is ready to face it. “How many speed bumps have I had in my life? This is just another one of those,” she said.