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TalkTV presenter James Whale, who has been on screens for over 25 years, has revealed his cancer journey is ‘at an end’.
The longtime media personality, 73, shared the update on his health to viewers after being diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer five years ago, which has since spread to his spine, brain and lungs.
He returned to his long-running show following a stay in intensive care after falling ill with a severe bout of the flu over Christmas.
Joined by Talk co-host Ash Gould, he said: ‘I’m at the end of my cancer journey. There is no treatment I can have anymore.
‘I can’t tell you how grateful I am to Talk to actually let me on the air and sit next to Ash, which is a real pain in the butt, but I’ve been doing it for 25 years!’
Speaking about his plans to still work for as long as he could, he quipped: ‘It might actually be helping me, you never know, so I don’t let that cloud my judgment – but on the medication I am on, I’m all over the place.
‘I’m hoping to go on for another few weeks, few months but as soon as I can’t do the show anymore, I won’t.’
In December, the MBE recipient’s wife offered an update when he returned home from the hospital.
‘After a worrying week I am happy to report that @THEJamesWhale is out of ICU and back at home, having batted off the Grim Reaper yet again.
‘This time he tried with a bout of Influenza A, but without success. Our hero is home for NYE,’ she wrote in a caption.
Whale was first diagnosed with cancer in 2000 when he had his kidney removed. It aggressively returned in 2020.
Reflecting on his terminal condition after receiving his MBE last year, he admitted his worries that he ‘might not make it to the end of the year.’
At the time, he continued: ‘I think you’ve got to be positive. I know it’s getting a bit worse than it was. You just have to go with the flow really.
‘You have to do that to get through it. One in two of us is going to go on this journey until they find a cure. They will find a cure. But you have to make the most of it.’
‘When you’re my age and I’ve had a good life, you say maybe you have another year left. Four years ago, we thought we had months.’
Whale rose to prominence in the 1980s with The James Whale Radio Show on Radio Aire in Leeds and has also since gone on to become an Express columnist.
Several high-profile people have been open about their journey with cancer in recent months, including Celebrity Big Brother’s Trisha Goddard, who scheduled her treatment around her time in the house.
Meanwhile, King Charles, who announced he had been diagnosed with cancer in February 2024, recently spoke about the ‘daunting’ experience.
He wrote: ‘A cancer diagnosis need never mean facing the future without hope and support’.
Then added: ‘‘Each diagnosis, each new case, will be a daunting and at times frightening experience for those individuals and their loved ones.
‘But as one among those statistics myself, I can vouch for the fact that it can also be an experience that brings into sharp focus the very best of humanity.’
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