Hollyoaks' Ali Bastian, 42, reveals breast cancer diagnosis after finding lump while feeding baby

Former Hollyoaks star Ali Bastian has been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. The 42-year-old actress has told how she was left in "total shock" when she found out the devastating news at the end of June.

Ali - who is best known for playing Becca Dean in the Channel 4 soap from 2001 to 2007 - is currently having chemotherapy before she undergoes a mastectomy and radiotherapy.

She told OK! Magazine: "It was a total shock. I have mornings when I wake up and I've forgotten... and then suddenly I remember. I'm still trying to process it."

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Ali - who now lives in Ireland with her husband and two young daughters - was breastfeeding her and husband David O'Mahony's youngest daughter Isabella, 19 months, when she came across a lump.

The mother-of-two - who also has Isla, four, with her spouse - shared: "I hadn't been breastfeeding Izzy at night but then David flew back to London for work and suddenly she was feeding like crazy. I was thinking, 'Maybe she's having a growth spurt or something.' And because of that, my boobs felt sore. The next morning, I woke up and thought, 'Ouch, this really hurts.' And that's when I felt a lump."

Ali assumed she had a "blocked duct" and was given a course of antibiotics, but it wasn't clearing up, so on her doctor's advice, she headed to a breast clinic. She continued: "It was a bank holiday in Ireland, so I went straight to the emergency doctor."

"It really seemed like I had mastitis, especially as I had been night-weaning Izzy before that. We thought I probably had a blocked duct. The doctor gave me antibiotics and said that if it didn't clear up in a few days I should go to the breast