TV and radio star Jamie Theakston has opened up about the heartbreaking death of his mother a year before being diagnosed with cancer.
Jamie, 54, appeared on Davina McCall’s podcast, Begin Again, and opened up about finding a lesion on his vocal chords where later it was announced he had Stage 1 Laryngeal cancer. As a result, he took a break from work before returning in January when he received the all-clear.
Jamie previously revealed the diagnosis came as an “enormous shock” and “blew my mind”. However, in his latest interview, Jamie explained how cancer had impacted his family before.
Jamie Theakston’s mother died of cancer a year prior
While talking to Davina, Jamie revealed he had some scans before going on a family vacation after noticing something was wrong with his throat. He was warned that he could have cancer and was given pills to take on holiday.
However, he kept it all a secret from his wife Sophie Siegle and their two children, sons Sidney, 16, and Kit, 15, until he found out what the results were.
Jamie tried to remain positive, telling himself “it might not be cancer” and admitted he “suppressed” himself from thinking about it.
After having the ulceration removed, the biopsy revealed he had cancer. He went home and told his wife Sophie, who he said was “distraught” by the news. Despite being stage 1 cancer, Jamie said the cells were still “aggressive”.
However, when explaining what it was like to tell his children about the awful news, Jamie started to choke up.
I was so pleased she had died before I got cancer.
“It was really hard,” he admitted, explaining he wanted them to know he was “going to be fine”. However, Jamie felt they were “too young” to understand.
“When you say you’ve got cancer to a 14 year old, well, you’re gonna die,” he said. Assuring his two sons he was going to be okay, Jamie started to well up when announcing his mum’s diagnosis.
“My mum had died of cancer about a year before, and so my youngest son, who was with me when I told my mum had died from cancer, knew that you could die,” he shared while crying.
“That was the hardest part,” Jamie added.
‘I was so pleased she had died before I got cancer’
Later in the interview, Jamie opened up about his mother again.
When he found he had been diagnosed with cancer, Jamie admitted that “all I could think about was my mum”.
“I was so pleased she had died before I got cancer because I would have hated for her to have learned that I had cancer,” he continued.
After Jamie’s mum had lived with cancer for many years, he was unsure how she would have reacted. Jamie revealed she had been diagnosed with several different cancers after previously receiving the all-clear.
“I don’t know if I could have ever have told her. I don’t know what that would have done to her,” he added.
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