Prue Leith is devastated about Bill Turnbull's "tragic" cancer battle.
Prue Leith
The 78-year-old 'Great British Bake-Off' judge has spoken out about former 'BBC Breakfast' presenter Bill Turnbull's diagnosis - which was announced after he took part in the celebrity special of the show in aid of the Stand Up To Cancer charity - and admits his story makes you realise "how close cancer is to so many of us".
Speaking at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, she said: "I just think all the celebrities have been such good fun and so up for it and genuinely wanting to do something to research for cancer. Then absolutely tragic about Bill getting cancer just a few weeks after he was on it. But I think it will make people realise just how close cancer is to so many of us. I mean almost everybody has friends or relatives who've got cancer."
Bill, 62, announced he received a terminal cancer diagnosis in a short video at the end of the recent episode of 'The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off', and he admitted the love of his family was keeping him positive.
Bill - who has three children, sons Henry and Will, and daughter Flora, with his wife Sarah - said: "I've been blessed to have had a wonderful family who still give me joy everyday. Being a father is the most challenging thing you can do. I consider my marriage to have been the best thing I've ever done. I prided myself on not seeing my GP for years. I wasn't aware that something was going wrong inside me. I was getting pains in my legs and hips and they would come and go, but eventually they got so bad I had to see my GP.
"The doctor said it's fairly clear from this that you have advanced prostate cancer and it's spread to the bone. I thought I now have to deal with having less of a future than I thought, and a dark cloud came down. It's a difficult, difficult moment. Probably the worst days of my life. But love has kept us afloat."
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