‘Long story short, I’ve got breast cancer’: Comedian Judith Lucy reveals diagnosis

Comedian Judith Lucy has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer … in a way only she could.

Lucy matter-of-factly delivers the health update in a video posted to social media, sandwiched between quick quips about her newly released wellness book and recent faecal transplants.

“Not so fun update from me,” Lucy says at the start of the Instagram video. “I got an email from BreastScreen Australia, telling me that my mammogram result was a bit weird. May I take this opportunity to say, ladies, for the love of God, keep up with your mammograms.

“Long story short, I’ve got breast cancer.”

Lucy said three weeks ago she was going to “pick up yet two more syringes of yet another stranger’s turds” for her faecal transplants – following a bad virus she contracted while travelling through the Amazon in South America for an ayahuasca retreat – when she received the email.

“I went on last Friday for a lumpectomy, and a doctor – I’m not making this up - called Doctor Fun found more cancer,” Lucy says.

The cancer is “relatively non-aggressive”, Lucy shared, adding she is removing both her breasts by the end of this week via mastectomy – despite only one breast being cancerous.

“Doctor Fun is amazing. I am in her debt, but we have gone from a lumpectomy to a mastectomy, which I am having Friday week,” she says.

“I said, while you’re there, let’s get rid of the other one because, you know something, I have had 40 years of, if I do say so myself, large and spectacular breasts. You had your chance, fellas.

“I think I’m quite fine with going bra-free for my last chapter, and my last chapter is going to be very long and healthy.”

Lucy then turns to what she dubs the “elephant in the room”: her new wellness book, Well Well Well … My Wellness Odyssey.

“There’s nothing like releasing a book about wellness as you’re being diagnosed with breast cancer. Now fortunately, the book does not end with me going, ‘And I’ve never been healthier!’ In fact, kind of the point of the book is that there are no quick fixes, and we should just all be living differently,” Lucy says.

The most ironic part about her book, she notes, was the introduction, which she then reads.

“I know how lucky I am not to have a more serious health condition. If you have cancer or anything approaching that level of severity, I would stop reading now so that you don’t want to fire me out of a canon or tattoo Donald Trump as one sexy mother on my face next time you see me.

Between the faecal transplants and breast cancer, Lucy jokes, “we can safely say that the book that has come out is well”.

Lucy finishes her video on a more serious note, telling her audience that while the news comes as a shock, she will be OK.

“I will have a lot more to say about all of this, as I’m sure you know. I’ll be keeping you abreast of everything, Australia. I really am OK, by the way. I mean, I’m in shock, but I’m OK,” Lucy says at the end of her video.

Fellow comedian Geraldine Hickey was quick to comment, saying below Lucy’s post: “It’ll be a weight off your chest!”

Meanwhile, comedian and media personality Celia Pacquola also commented below Lucy’s video. “You are the most spectacular woman with or without those 10/10 knockers. Love you. I have books on the way; how do we preorder ‘Well Well Well vol II’? xxx,” she wrote.

Last month, Lucy told Good Weekend she had suffered burnout. This prompted her to go travelling, first to Perth then to South America, during which she took the trip through the Amazon.

“I now look back and the burnout part started when I had COVID in lockdown in Adelaide, and the thought of doing stand-up ever again just made me want to cry and repeatedly punch myself in the face,” Lucy said in the interview.

Before the Perth trip, Lucy was offered the role of Winnie in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Happy Days.

“It wasn’t great timing because I was at a point where I just needed a break, but of course, there is no business like showbusiness, so off I went,” she said.

“When I finished the play, I went to Perth. I thought, ‘I’m finally going to have a holiday.’ I got really sick. Up until that point, I simply didn’t believe in burnout. If I’m really honest about it, I thought, ‘Oh yeah, sure, people are a bit lazy and weak,’ with no judgment whatsoever.”

She told Good Weekend she had moved back to Melbourne and was “in a much better place than I was before I went to Perth”.

“I’ve introduced a lot of new habits into my life, from gardening to cooking to playing the guitar. I’ve got plans to do a show and a podcast, and we’ll just have to see if I can balance it. But I never want to be that sick again, and I never want to not work again. So my belief is that if I keep listening to my body, I can’t go wrong,” she said.

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