“Industry” star Marisa Abela is diving headfirst into her cancer diagnosis and the surgery that happened right after.
Opening up about the fight, the actress said the “scariest thing” she feared was never speaking again.
Abela, now 29, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2020 at 23. The diagnosis required surgery which meant an eight-hour operation to remove a tumor from her neck.
It was a harsh reality the young actress had to come to grips with.
Abela – who won a Bafta for best actress in 2025 – recalled those incredibly bleak moments while speaking on the “How To Fail with Elizabeth Day” podcast, per The Independent.
What was mostly on her mind at the time was the possibility of no longer being able to say a word after the operation – and as a working actress, no less.
She received the earth-shattering diagnosis during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that was after her visit to the hospital complaining of noticeable symptoms that included brain fog, because she believed she caught COVID.
As a result, Abela underwent a total thyroidectomy, where around 19 lymph nodes were removed.
A total thyroidectomy is a surgical removal treatment of all of one’s thyroid gland, per the Mayo Clinic.
As one could imagine, being told of a cancer diagnosis could literally knock the wind out of anyone.
Now, imagine being told of such a diagnosis in your early 20’s.
It was a devastating reality Abela grappled with.
“Obviously you never expect to get to be told that you have cancer at 23. The aftermath of the whole thing was scary to me.
“I knew I was ill, I could tell something was really wrong and then I just switched into, like, ‘get it out, get it out’ mode, and: ‘Am I going to be able to speak again?’”
“That was the scariest thing, because they had to go through a lot of nerves to get to my thyroid,” she continued. “One of the things was I had to sign a form that said if they cut the nerve that’s attached to my voice box, I’m not going to sue them or whatever.
“I remember when I woke up, the first thing I did was go, ‘maaa’, because I just wanted to make sure I could talk.”
Another concern that was on the actress’ mind was the noticeable scar on her neck, which worried her because she wondered if it would affect her career.
Above all, the entire ordeal was seemingly a terrifying experience for Abela, where she admitted, “It was on my thyroid and I was aware that that was potentially going to cause hormonal issues throughout my life. That was very scary.”
“Just the aftermath of the whole thing was scary to me,” she continued. “It was an eight-hour surgery, and it was in the middle of Covid, so I had to go in on my own. I was put in the burns unit for recovery because there weren’t enough beds in the ICU, so 2020 was bleak for me.”
Fortunately, the “Industry” star had her husband, actor Jamie Bogyo, whom she married in 2025, to lean on as part of her support system, adding that he was an “immense help” throughout her diagnosis.
Lovingly, she noted that Bogyo is “the most supportive person in every way.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pennlive.com ’
