I’m A Celebrity literally saved my life
Paul Burrell shared his hopes and fears with Lorraine viewers today, as the cameras followed his recent operation and the first round of radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Paul also joined host Lorraine Kelly live in the studio and exclusively revealed how his medical tests ahead of joining ‘I’m A Celebrity All Stars’ helped lead to his eventual prostate cancer diagnosis.
Paul opened up by stating, “That show, I’m A Celebrity, literally saved my life.
“Because I went for the medical [and] they found a raised PSA level. I went to my GP and I said to him, ‘Am I still able to do the show?’ And he said, ‘Look, this can wait until you get back [from filming] and when you get back, we’ll continue with the investigations’. So when I got back, then I had an MRI scan and then I had a biopsy and then they told me that I had cancer, and then I had to go on the path of treatment.”
Paul later shared,
“I’m so grateful to ITV for picking me to do the jungle because without that, I would still be sat here today not knowing I had cancer growing inside of me. So my journey is a happy one.
“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions and you just don’t know what’s going to happen to you next. And combining that with hormone therapy, which doesn’t help, I get hot sweats and I’m very emotional and very tired, so it’s a tough experience to go through but I’m getting through it.”
Paul then brought viewers along to the hospital as he began his cancer treatment. Seen leaving the home he shares with husband Graham Cooper, Paul said, “It’s almost six o’clock in the morning. It’s time for me to go to hospital to have my operation. Coop can’t come with me because of the radiation. And so I’m gonna do this bit by myself.”
Speaking from The Christie Hospital in Manchester, the former Royal butler later added, “I’m really nervous about this. I know it’s like going to the dentist, so it’ll be over very soon, but it’s a life-changing thing that’s happening to me this morning.”
After the two-hour procedure, in which he had radium injected into his prostate to shrink his tumor, Paul, 64, admitted, “I don’t know what I was worried about because I didn’t feel a thing.” Viewers then saw Paul having his first radiotherapy treatment at the hospital, using a state-of-the-art cone beam CT scanner that checks the pelvis and then delivers the radiotherapy.
He said afterwards, “I’ve just had my treatment, one of 15, and I didn’t feel a thing. It was just like lying on a sunbed.” Heaping praise on the staff who are caring for him, he added;
“The team here has been so supportive. They’re incredible. And every time I come here, there’s a warm smile and a welcome which just helps me get through it.”
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV1 & ITVX
