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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Kate Ng

Adele Roberts announces she is cancer free

Joe Maher/Getty

Adele Roberts has revealed that she is free of cancer and thanked her doctor and NHS staff who treated her.

The BBC Radio 1 DJ revealed last October that she had been diagnosed with bowel cancer and was undergoing treatment.

Roberts, 43, said in a post on Instagram that hearing she was cancer-free was “the most beautiful sound I think I’ve ever heard”.

She posted a photograph of herself with her doctor, Dr Khan, and wrote in a lengthy caption: “Angel on Earth. The day I’ve been waiting for.”

The presenter, who posed on the cover of Women’s Health with her stoma bag last month, said she was continuously replaying the words “You’re free of cancer” in her mind.

“Even though I was praying Dr Khan would say that to me, I don’t think my head let me believe it until I heard it,” she continued.

“Everything we’ve been through seems to be swirling around in my body and life feels a bit surreal at the moment... BUT I AM SO GRATEFUL! I am counting my blessings.”

Roberts added that she was “in awe” of cancer patients living with and being treated for the disease, as their displays of “courage, strength, determination, and at times, humour” are “nothing short of superhuman”.

“You’ve inspired me and given me the fire to never give up. You’re warriors and it’s thanks to seeing you being so strong that’s kept me going. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

“Sometimes it took me all my strength just to get out of bed and face the day but I still did it. Every day I made sure I did something to do a huge f*** you to cancer. It’s taken too many of us. I didn’t know what fate had in store for me but I knew I’d never stop trying.”

Roberts also thanked her family and friends for their support during her treatment.

“You’ve kept me going and helped me slay this beast,” she wrote. “That’s one thing Dr Khan said to me. Your mind can go to dark places when dealing with cancer but that’s one thing I knew I had control over.

“My body might have been dying – it’s still so sore now – but there was no way I was letting it destroy my spirit.”

She added a special tribute to her fiancee, Kate Holderness, who she previously hailed as an “absolute hero” for staying by her side through her treatment.

Roberts wrote on Monday that Holderness was “the reason I had strength to get out of bed every morning”, adding: “I will never leave you and I will always find you. In this life and the next”.

She also gave a shoutout to her stoma bag, which she has named “Audrey”, and said her diagnosis “brought amazing people into my life and it’s time now for me to start really living”.

“Going through the darkness has given me the light,” Roberts wrote.

She concluded her post with a phrase she was told by “a lovely man… called Terry” who she had met recently: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today is a gift.”

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