Nightwish's Floor Jansen Reveals Cancer Prognosis

Late last month, Floor Jansen, the Dutch powerhouse vocalist of the Finnish band Nightwish, revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

While she was lucky to receive a non-aggressive diagnosis, Jansen used her platform to share that without attending her routine mammogram, the tumour would have been found later and put her in further danger.

"I have breast cancer. It was diagnosed a little over two weeks ago, and I will have surgery tomorrow to remove the tumour. My prognosis is very good!!! It seems to be a non-aggressive cancer, which seems to not have spread. I will keep my breast," the Greatest Show On Earth singer shared.

Jansen added that she would be cancer-free following the surgery and that everything she found important changed "radically within minutes" after the diagnosis. "I just want to be healthy again. I want to see my daughter grow into a woman; I want to live! 

"And the scariest part of this diagnosis is that I thought I was healthy! I didn't feel the cancer; I didn't know it was there until I, as a 40+ woman, went to a standard mammogram checkup—something many countries offer for free, even for the lucky ones," she said.

"Had I not gone there, the tumour would have gone undetected. In a year from now, this could have grown much bigger. The thought of that makes me share this story with you. A mammogram is lifesaving! It's uncomfortable, and you might think that you won't have something in your breasts anyway but GO! 

"And for the men reading this: remind your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister, to go and get checked. Even without the luxury I, as a western woman, experience with free mammogram checkups: GO! Luckily, there are many organizations that offer information about self-detection if you do not have access or funds for a mammogram.