Homes Under The Hammer’s Tommy Walsh reveals his most cancers is ‘shrinking’
Tommy Walsh has admitted he is ‘happy’ and ‘not in any pain’ as he shared a positive health update amid his battle with cancer.
The Homes Under The Hammer star, 67, is currently battling the disease, which is just under his lung, but revealed he is nearly in remission.
The veteran TV builder, who has previously battled throat cancer, said the cancer is ‘slowly shrinking and disappearing’ as he continues his radiotherapy treatment called SABR.
Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) is the use of multiple small radiation beams to deliver high dose radiotherapy.
This is shaped to the size of the tumour and spares the surrounding normal tissue and organs as much as possible. SABR is most often used on small, well-defined tumours.
Tommy Walsh, 67, has admitted he is ‘happy’ and ‘not in any pain’ as he shared a positive health update amid his battle with cancer
The Homes Under The Hammer star, is currently battling the disease, which is just under his lung, but revealed he is nearly in remission
For Tommy, the treatment has ‘worked really well’ as he continues to fight and beat the cancer.
He told The Mirror: ‘So I had to have this new treatment called SABR and what it is is radiotherapy which targets it to an exact spot without damaging the organs around it. So they used that and it shrunk.
‘It is now not anywhere else. It is going away. Because it is shrinking it will shrink down to nothing and disappear. I will then just have to have annual checks. It has worked for me really well.
‘They thought it was in the lung and then I would have been in trouble. Surgery would have been serious. So I did not want but we had that as a backup. The SABR treatment has worked and I am healthy so I have not been in any pain.’
In January, Tommy revealed he needed urgent treatment after doctors picked up the tumour on a CT scan after complaining of a chest infection.
He gave the worrying health update during a talk at a conference held by Swallows, a head and neck cancer charity in November, where he told the audience to ‘keep their fingers crossed’ for him.
Tommy said on a video of the talk posted on YouTube: ‘I have an emergency appointment at 9am tomorrow morning back in London.
‘I had a chest infection, had to go to the doctor and they sent me up to hospital for a CT scan and they think there’s a three centimetre tumour in the lung.
The veteran TV builder, who has previously battled throat cancer, said the cancer is ‘slowly shrinking and disappearing’ as he continues his radiotherapy treatment called SABR (pictured in 2011)
For Tommy, the treatment has ‘worked really well’ as he continues to fight and beat the cancer
In January, Tommy revealed he needed urgent treatment after doctors picked up the tumour on a CT scan after complaining of a chest infection
‘I’ve tried to keep cheerful and you’ve cheered me up today, and thank you for letting me reminisce and talk.
‘I was weighing up whether or not to tell you about this but I felt it would be unfair if I was to leave this and I didn’t tell you.
‘That’s why I’m going to have to leave after this talk and I won’t be able to join you for a few beers tonight.
‘But I hope and I would be really pleased if you would have a few on my behalf and I’ll keep my fingers crossed, and if you wouldn’t mind, keep your fingers crossed for me.’
Father-of-three Tommy, who has been married to wife Marie for over 30 years, discovered a cancerous lump in his body during a cancer awareness campaign in 2022.
He said: ‘I went to my GP about an unrelated issue and while I was there, he discovered this lump in my throat that he was a bit concerned about.
‘He said it may be nothing but that he would rather I went and got it checked and, unfortunately, it turned out to be cancerous.
‘I had to go in straight away and have surgery to remove it. I am now fully recovered and even back playing football.’
He told the crowd: ‘I’ve tried to keep cheerful and you’ve cheered me up today, and thank you for letting me reminisce and talk
Tommy joined the BBC renovation show in 2021, alongside an array of co-hosts, and filmed his final episode last year, according to reports (Tommy pictured on Ground in 1997)
Two decades earlier, he had a breast cancer scare after finding two lumps on his chest.
Due to his family history, a doctor told him to see a consultant at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, the same hospital where his sister had a lumpectomy to remove cancerous and normal breast tissue.
He said: ‘I just buried myself in my work and then went along for the day surgery where the lumps were removed under a general anaesthetic.
‘It was only then that it sort of hit me that this could actually be serious and I could have breast cancer, like my relatives.’
Thankfully the test results showed that the lumps were benign, but Tommy admitted it was ‘a bit of a wake-up call’ about the disease.
Tommy has been a regular face on TV screens since starring in makeover show Ground Force since 2007.
He was a working builder before getting the role after he was encouraged to audition for a TV producer.
The show became a hit worldwide and Tommy and his co-stars were even invited to the White House to meet the US President George W Bush after making two US series, including a special in New York in wake of 9/11.
