Facebook boss reveals she has incurable cancer

Nicola Mendelsohn has revealed she is battling follicular lymphoma and has set up a support group to raise awareness of the disease

Nicola Mendelsohn addressing the Confederation of British Industry around the time of her diagnosis (Getty Images)

The head of Facebook in Europe has revealed she is suffering from an incurable form of cancer in a bid to raise awareness of the disease.

Nicola Mendelsohn, 46, was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma just over a year ago and has said she had decided to “watch and wait” to see if the tumours grow rather than try to fight them with chemotherapy.

The mother-of-four said her doctors had advised her it was best to keep monitoring the disease to see if it had progressed and she has had regular scans since her diagnosis in November 2016 but it is currently manageable.

The vice-president for Europe, Middle East and Africa has now founded a new support group called Living with Follicular Lymphoma on the social media platform to help sufferers as well as raise awareness and prompt research into a cure.

Revealing her diagnosis on her Facebook page, she wrote: “I often talk about how people can seize their own destiny, so it’s tough to be reminded that there are things you can’t control. Just over a year ago I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma – a slow developing cancer of the white blood cells that's not rare and that has no cure.

“It is quite an unknown disease which is why I've decided to raise awareness by telling my story in the hope of driving research and a better understanding of it.

“I’m incredibly lucky that right now I'm mostly symptom free, and I’m so grateful to all those people who have been so generous and supportive when I needed them the most.”

In a longer piece for The Sunday Times she recounted her shock at her diagnosis, saying she did not even feel ill.

She said she first noticed something was wrong when she felt a tiny lump in her groin. When she told her doctor her friend about it over the phone the friend had said to monitor it over a few weeks and come see her if it did not go away.

After several biopsies and tests she was eventually diagnosed with the rare condition.

Around 1,900 people are diagnosed with the illness every year and although it can occur at any age, the average age of patients is 65, according to the Lymphoma Association.

She said the “hardest moment” was telling her four children, aged between 13 and 20, about her condition.

Her youngest, Zac, asked “are you going to die?”

She wrote: “That's always the thought that comes into your head when you hear the word ‘cancer’.

“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.”