BEAMING from ear to ear, TV host Jacquie Beltrao hugs one of the scientists who saved her life.
Three years ago, the Sky News sports presenter was told her stage-four breast cancer had spread to her spine and legs, leaving her fearing she had just months to live.
But thanks to an incredible drug called olaparib — previously used for ovarian cancer — the 58-year-old is now cancer free.
At an emotional meeting this week at the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at London’s Institute of Cancer Research, mum-of-three Jacquie met Professor Andrew Tutt and his team, who pioneered the drug’s use.
She told him: “You are my hero. What you did for me has saved my life.”
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In an exclusive interview, Jacquie tells The Sun on Sunday: “Seeing Andrew, I was immediately compelled to just give him a massive hug — the bloke saved my life.
“Without him and his team making it possible for someone with breast cancer like me to take this drug, who knows where I would be now.
“I certainly wouldn’t be two years cancer free. Andrew is like a superhero to me.
"It really is a miracle what happened to me. And going to see them made me realise where the miracle happened.”
In a remarkable twist, Jacquie’s live-saving drug came into existence thanks to Sun readers helping to raise £650,000 for charity Breast Cancer Now to fund research into it in 2000.
Jacquie became one of the first people in the UK with secondary breast cancer to be treated with olaparib.
She says: “I can’t thank your readers enough for raising the money to have this drug researched.
'DARK THOUGHTS'
“Without it, I may not still be here so I owe so much to all those who dug deep all those years ago.”
A former Olympic gymnast, Jacquie has worked for Sky for 31 years.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and underwent a mastectomy and reconstruction.
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At one point she was told the chances of any cancer returning in the next five years were around three in 100 — odds she describes as “pretty damn good”.
And in a bid to fight off the disease she overhauled her diet, ditching dairy, and started yoga and running three times a week.
Yet in 2020, Jacquie found a bump the size of a grain of rice just below her collarbone.
In the following days she learned her cancer had returned. It was more aggressive than before.
Doctors told her it was stage four and that she would never be fully rid of it.
‘Andrew is like a superhero to me.
Jacquie Beltrao
It really is a miracle what happened to me. And going to see them made me realise
where the miracle happened’
Jacquie says: “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.
“I didn’t know where to turn. I would have some very dark thoughts. I remember looking up how long people live for with stage-four cancer and it said a max of two years.”
A year later, a scan found the cancer had spread to each leg and her spine. In total, she had 17 rounds of chemotherapy.
She says: “But it was then that I started to take a targeted therapy drug called olaparib.
“It was mainly for those suffering from ovarian cancer but I was at a point where I would take anything that gave me a chance.
“For some it has little effect, for others it works for a while then stops. But remarkably for me it worked.
“The best way to describe it is to imagine your cancer as a three-legged chair and the drug comes in and knocks one of the legs down and collapses it.
"Within weeks of taking it I noticed that my lymph nodes (which can swell due to cancer) were down. I had a feeling my next scan would show the spread may have slowed.”
But what came in June 2021 was more than she ever expected.
She says: “I’d 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 promin- ently.
“She sent me the scan and it was right, the evidence of cancer had gone.
"It was all down to this miracle drug. I remember telling my husband and daughter and there being lots of hugging and crying, such relief.”
Since then, Jacquie, who next month will be seen presenting daily from the Wimbledon tennis, has been cancer free.
She says: “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.”
Olaparib works by destroying PARP proteins, which stop the cancer cells healing themselves and therefore causes them to die.
Olaparib is available on the NHS for patients with primary breast and prostate cancers with certain gene mutations.
It is hoped that secondary cancer sufferers such as Jacquie will be able to get the treatment on the NHS in the future.
Jacquie says: “I take two tablets of it twice a day, and although it might sound strange, every time I take them out of the packet I think of the people who made it possible for me to have them — Andrew and the team. It has always been my wish to meet them to say how indebted I am to them.”
'ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES'
This week, The Sun on Sunday joined Jacquie as she visited the Institute, where scientists, who are part-funded by Breast Cancer Now, discovered how olaparib could be used to treat certain cancers.
Jacquie also met Professor Chris Lord, who in 2005 was part of the team which discovered that PARP inhibitors, which include olaparib, could selectively kill cancer cells. She says: “I said they saved my life.
They were just very modest and said thanks. It was a joyous meeting.
So often I’ve had meetings with medical experts where they’ve had to deliver me bad news. This was a nice meeting to say how thankful I was.”
Professor Tutt, director of the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at the Institute, said it was “wonderful” to meet Jacquie.
He added: “It’s incredibly rewarding to know that she’s benefiting from a targeted drug that our team helped to develop.
“As scientists, our aim is to save and improve lives. Jacquie’s visit is a powerful reminder of why we do what we do and how the scientific advances we’re making in the lab are truly making a difference for patients.
"Olaparib’s development was underpinned by more than 25 years of research at the ICR.
"In 2005 we made a key discovery, showing that PARP inhibitors could selectively kill cancer cells. We’re immensely grateful to Breast Cancer Now supporters who help fund our research.”
Many of those supporters were Sun readers who backed our 2000 campaign Raise A Ton For The Sun to get research for the life-saving drug off the ground.
At the time it gained the support of the then Prince Charles, singer Ronan Keating and presenter Denise van Outen.
A year later we presented Breast Cancer Now with a donation for £650,000.
Jacquie says: “It is remarkable to be one of the lucky ones to benefit from the incredible generosity of so many people, including your readers, who made this drug’s remarkable future a possibility.
“I thank The Sun and its readers greatly. I am living proof that donating and supporting cancer research is so, so important.”
It is estimated the drug will now change the lives of 800 more cancer patients every year, buying them precious time with their loved ones.
Dr Simon Vincent, director of research, support and influencing at Breast Cancer Now, said: “Jacquie’s fantastic ability to talk so openly about her experience of the disease and her interest in our world-class research has helped raise awareness about secondary breast cancer and we would like to thank her for all her help and support.”
- To find out more about Breast Cancer Now’s life-saving research go to breastcancernow.org/research.
