Edward Stourton says incurable prostate cancer means he ‘probably won’t celebrate 80th birthday’
Radio 4 presenter Edward Stourton, 65, says incurable prostate cancer means he ‘probably won’t celebrate his 80th birthday’
- Stourton was diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer seven years ago
- Now 65, he said he did ‘not particularly want to know’ his life expectancy
- Two years after diagnosis a scan showed it had spread to other parts of his body
Radio 4 presenter Edward Stourton has revealed that he will ‘probably not celebrate my 80th birthday’ because he is suffering from an incurable cancer.
Stourton, 65, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer seven years ago, said he was ‘living’ with the disease, and that it was important he did not let it define him.
The BBC journalist said he did ‘not particularly want to know’ his life expectancy.
‘I don’t think my doctor knows really,’ he told The Daily Telegraph. ‘But what he has said is that each treatment will last two or three years so I’ve done a quick sum.
Edward Stourton (pictured), 65, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer seven years ago, said he was ‘living’ with the disease, and that it was important he did not let it define him
‘I shall probably not celebrate my 80th birthday. I doubt the treatments will be good to keep me to [a lifespan] I would otherwise have had, but they are keeping me alive at the moment, and probably will for quite a long time to come.’
Stourton had treatment after being diagnosed with cancer aged 58. But two years later a scan showed it had returned and had spread to other parts of his body. He has undergone chemotherapy and ‘a whizzy treatment where they inject you with nuclear fluid’. He is currently on hormone therapy.
Stourton, a former presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC1’s the One O’Clock News has continued working on Radio 4, fronting programmes including World At One, Sunday and Analysis.
He was at the centre of controversy in 2008 when the BBC replaced him on Today with Justin Webb.
Mr Stourton was speaking ahead of his memoir being published later this month. In it he says that the ‘finishing line is that bit clearer, and it will probably become more predictable as the disease progresses’.
He adds: ‘It is perfectly possible the science… will always stay a jump or two ahead of whatever stage of the disease I have reached, so it does not do to be too maudlin.’