The mathmetician was diagnosed with cervical cancer six years ago

Prof Hannah Fry has described feeling "unbelievably lucky" after being treated for cervical cancer.

The mathematician and BBC presenter, who recently took part in the second season of the Celebrity Traitors, said cancerous cells were discovered after she attended a cervical screening in 2020.

She underwent a hysterectomy, describing the experience to BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs as "horrific".

"As awful as that was, it had a full stop at the end of the sentence," the 42-year-old added. "I had my five-year clear the other day. I feel so unbelievably lucky."

In Sunday's episode, Fry told show host Lauren Laverne that she had delayed a cervical screening examination for months in 2020. After she attended one, the results "didn't come back for a few weeks," she said.

"Then I got a call from my GP telling me they needed me to come back and do another test, and they did a biopsy.

"I was trying hard not to panic but when they found it was in the lymphatic system… that was when it really started to come down."

The broadcaster said she was told that her chances of survival depended on the cancerous cells not having spread to her lymph nodes, although it was not clear "how bad it was at that point".

"It's all about, basically, how far into your lymphatic system has it got. If it had not got into any lymph nodes, then the odds were in my favour and I had a really good chance of survival," she said.

Fry explained that this meant "if it was in one it would drop to a 60% chance of survival and two – the odds would go against me and it would be a 40% chance".

Fry attended a Cancer Research UK reception hosted by the King and Queen at St James's Palace in June

While in isolation in hospital following her hysterectomy, Fry said a surgeon told her that four of her lymph nodes had appeared enlarged.

She added: "I was in this hospital bed on my own and no-one could come and visit me for over a week, with nothing but the sheer terrifying drop of the end of my existence in front of me – it was horrific."

Fry described not being able to "think back to happy things that... have already happened because it is sad", while also not being able to "look forward to things you are hopeful about because it doesn't feel like it is there".

She also said she asked her then husband to set up FaceTime in the corner of a room so she could watch their two young daughters play while she was in hospital.

"I didn't want them to see me, it was too much," she said.

But she added: "Going through something like that I don't think I would swap it.

"I think it was honestly such a gift to have that experience when you're 36 and then come out the other side of it."

The presenter grew up in a working-class family and studied mathematics at University of College London.

She later completed a PhD in fluid dynamics, and last year became Cambridge University's first professor of the public understanding of mathematics.

Fry has fronted BBC science series including The Future with Hannah Fry and The Secret Genius of Modern Life.

She was banished in the latest series of The Celebrity Traitors after being exposed as a traitor.

Young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab

HPV home-testing kits available for women in England who have missed cervical screening

Period blood test could offer less invasive alternative to cervical screening