The head of Facebook in Europe has revealed that she has incurable blood cancer.
Nicola Mendelsohn, 46, explained how she was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma after finding a lump in her groin.
She said telling her four children was ‘the hardest moment of her life’, describing how her youngest son Zac, 13, asked her ‘Are you going to die?
Nicola – whose husband Lord Mendelsohn was sacked last month by Jeremy Corbyn for attending the Presidents Club gala – is now calling for more investment in research into lymphoma.
Nicola Mendelsohn, 46, has revealed that she has been diagnosed with the incurable blood cancer follicular lymphoma
Writing in the Sunday Times Magazine, Nicola explained how she was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in November 2016.
She had discovered a small lump in her groin, measuring less than half a centimetre, before a CT scan showed she had tumours all over her body.
The mother-of-four – who is the vice president of Facebook in Europe, the Middle East and Africa – described how she and her husband, Jon, had to sit down their children, aged 13 to 20, to tell them the devastating news.
She said: ‘Zac is our youngest and his first question was: “Are you going to die?” That’s always the thought that comes into your head when you hear the word “cancer”.
Nicola Mendelsohn pictured with her four children (Zac, front left, Sam, back left, Gabi, centre, and Danny, far right) and husband Lord Mendelsohn
Nicola (pictured with husband Lord Mendelsohn) described having to tell her children about the cancer diagnosis as ‘the hardest moment of her life’
‘It is not a conversation I could ever have imagined having with them, not even in my worst nightmares, until it hit me in the face. It was the hardest moment of my life.’
Nicola wrote that her type of cancer is ‘slow growing’, that it is ‘currently incurable’, and how 60 per cent of those living with lymphomas live more than 10 years.
Addressing her prognosis, she said: ‘Perhaps that seems an acceptable prognosis to give people in their sixties and seventies, but it doesn’t feel acceptable if you’re 46, like me. I’m not satisfied with that.’
She said she has chosen to monitor her cancer through the ‘watch and wait’ approach, and will begin treatment – a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy – if and when her symptoms worsen.
Nicola, pictured after being awarded a CBE in 2015, has called for more investment in research into lymphoma
Nicola Mendelsohn praised her husband Lord Mendelsohn, who was sacked last month by Jeremy Corbyn for attending the Presidents Club gala, for his support during her illness
Nicola revealed how she has given up processed sugar from her diet, and now exercises twice a week, admitting she ironically feels ‘much healthier’.
She said she wants to encourage others to check for the tell-tale signs of the disease, as well as calling for investment into research to find a cure.
The Facebook boss’s husband, 51, was sacked from the party’s front bench last month after attending the controversial all-male Presidents Club dinner where young women were allegedly groped and sexually harassed.
Lord Mendelsohn, the party’s spokesman on business and international trade in the House of Lords, was probed by officials after it emerged that he had been on the guest list.
He attended the dinner as president of a charity receiving support from the charity event and ‘unreservedly condemned’ the sexual harassment which is said to have taken place.