Jamie Theakston has confirmed he’s returning to broadcasting after undergoing surgery for cancer.
Towards the end of last year, the presenter announced he’d be taking an extended break from his slot on Heart Breakfast after being told he had stage one laryngeal cancer.
During Friday’s show, he surprised listeners when he returned to the studio, and explained: “Today is the four-month anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. So it’s been four months, and I’ve had enough of hospitals and operations, and it’s just lovely to be back, and I’ve got some news for you. Because I can tell you that as of today, I’m cancer free.”
Speaking to his usual co-host Amanda Holden and stand-in Jason King, Jamie admitted that his initial diagnosis came as “an enormous shock”.
“I was fully intended to be told that I had a sore throat. And when I was told, ‘oh, it’s probably cancer,’ just, literally, I just didn’t even know what to say,” he recalled. “I mean, it just blew my mind.
“And so then it’s all about statistics. So the first is, ‘well, you’ll have a one in 10 chance you won’t survive it.’ And you kind of go, ‘oh okay, I’ll take that.’ And then I had to do several surgeries.
“The first surgery wasn’t as successful as we hoped, had a second surgery, and then a third surgery, and each time, I was doing more and more damage to my vocal cords. So, in actual fact, by the third one, they said, ‘well, look, you’ve got a one in six chance you might not be able to talk again’.”
Fortunately, Jamie has now been told he is cancer-free, and will return to work on a permanent basis from Monday onwards.
Jamie said: “Everyone has been so supportive. It’s been unbelievable and it’s just blown me away. So, I wanted to thank everyone who sent me messages.
“Every single person I’ve ever met or known has been in touch. People I’ve forgotten all about have been in touch. So that has just been amazing.”
Praising guest presenter Jason, Jamie added: “You’ve done such an amazing job. You came in at the last minute, and I know what an upheaval it is.
“You’ve got a young family, and literally, you were told, ‘oh, you’ve got to come in tomorrow,’ and then from then on, you didn’t know how long you were going to do it for – one month, then two months, and then it was three months. And you’ve done such a fantastic job.”
Jamie discovered he had cancer after having surgery on his vocal cords.
“As you know, I recently had an operation to remove a lesion from my vocal cords,” he wrote on Instagram in September.
“The biopsy has identified this as stage one laryngeal cancer. So, I have cancer – but cancer doesn’t have me.”
Initially, Jamie said he’d hoped to return to work in October, though the recovery process ended up taking several months.
