Sherrie Hewson broke down live on television while revealing that she discovered a lump in her breast just before entering the Celebrity Big Brother house.

Sherrie told her fellow panellists on Loose Women: “I had a lump a few years ago, but only a few weeks ago, which I’ve never told anybody, I found another one. It was me who found it, I didn’t tell anybody, I went to hospital.

“But I was going into the Big Brother house and I didn’t want to say anything because obviously I’m working and I have to earn, I’m the only bread winner in the family.”

Sherrie Hewson
Sherrie Hewson (Jon Enoch/Channel Five)

Becoming emotional, she added: “And stupidly, and please don’t ever do this, anybody, don’t not tell somebody. I went in, frightened, and came out. I went back to hospital – fortunately it was only a cyst.”

Sherrie, 65, has been a panellist on Loose Women since 2003. The former soap star entered series 20 of Celebrity Big Brother in August, spending 29 days in the house.

Speaking on the ITV daytime show, which was marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month, she added: “All I’m saying is my fear was I didn’t want to know, and I didn’t want to tell anybody.

The Loose Women
The Loose Women back in 2010 (Zak Hussein/PA)

“And I think, really, if you look at everybody in a street, they would tell you that was one of the biggest problems, is terror, is not being able to look, touch, feel, and go ‘It could be me, well actually I’ll put my head in the sand and I’ll pretend it’s not me’.

“And I think that’s what happened to me. It was the most stupid thing I have ever done in my life. So if anybody’s listening, please don’t do what I did.”

Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.