Imagine being told you have cancer. Then the feeling that you brought it on yourself by having cosmetic surgery. It’s the stark reality for a growing number of women being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer caused by textured breast implants. One of these women helpsย WHย to investigate the nightmare as it unfolds.

‘You will feel this,โ€™ says the nurse. โ€˜The anaesthetic doesnโ€™t reach the bone.โ€™ Anna Nightingale hears the words, but doesnโ€™t fully take them in. Itโ€™s early January 2019, and itโ€™s here, in a Maltese hospital, that the 43-year-old British expat artist has spent the past two weeks coming to terms with the news that she hasย cancerย in the lymph node under her right armpit.