Michelle Heaton has thanked fans for their support after revealing that she has an 80 per cent chance of contracting cancer.

The Liberty X singer has been in hospital recently getting fitted with a recorder to monitor a long-standing heart condition.

Heaton, however, has now revealed to OK! magazine that she found out earlier this year that she has a gene which means she has an 80 per cent chance of getting ovarian or breast cancer.

It means that Heaton is faced with the prospect of having a double mastectomy and removing her ovaries in order to reduce her risk of cancer. She said:

"A couple of months before we went [to the Carribean earlier this year], I found out that I have the BRCA2 cancer gene, which means I have an 80 per cent chance of getting ovarian cancer or breast cancer - and that's on top of everyone else's one in three chance. I've got to have an operation and we've got some decisions to make - whether I should have a double mastectomy and if I should have my ovaries removed to reduce the risks. We're going to have some counselling sessions before we make our minds up."

Heaton, who has a 7-month-old child, took to Twitter earlier today (August 15) to thank her fans for their support and messages of empathy, tweeting:

"There is so much love and great advice coming my way from you all..I really really appreciate it. I promise I do read u all......Some of your stories are heart wrenching and inspirational..I'm off for counselling today & some advice into the operations. Big love.x."