AceShowbiz - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has had a mastectomy. The 63-year-old author was announced at the weekend to have been diagnosed with breast cancer and, on an episode of her podcast recorded last week, she revealed she was having the affected breast removed and vowed to become "super fit" afterwards.

"Tomorrow I'm going in for a mastectomy... I have to go through this operation, and I have to be well and strong. And therefore, no choice is the best choice. I'm going to go out there and get super, super well - super strong," she said on "Tea Talks".

Sarah - who is the ex-wife of Prince Andrew - insisted she was grateful for her diagnosis as it has forced her to focus on herself instead of other people. She added, "I taking this as a gift to make real changes for myself and to nurture myself and stop trying to fix everyone else."

The duchess was diagnoses with cancer following a routine mammogram and urged people not to "wait" when they are invited for routine screening. She said, "It doesn't matter if you see it feel fine. Cancer can be so silent.

"Go get screened, go and get checked. Don't wait... I want to always if I have to shout about this from the top of the mountains then I'll shout out because I think it's vital that we need to wake everybody gets screened not just breast cancer, prostate, all the checks."

Sarah recalled her sister in Australia being insistent she make an appointment after she'd mentioned her mammogram was due. The duchess added, "She said 'go, I need you to go.' " And without the screening, Sarah's cancer wouldn't have been discovered because she was "otherwise symptom free." She said, "It was only a shadow they wouldn't have...found out that there is an issue."