Returning to the airwaves six months on from his shock diagnosis, the popular broadcaster explains his last-minute decision to switch treatments.
ABC radio presenter James Valentine stepped away from the microphone six months ago after telling listeners a diagnosis of oesophageal cancer meant he needed “fairly dramatic surgery”.
But as the popular broadcaster and musician made an upbeat return to ABC Sydney on Monday afternoon, he revealed that three days before surgery, he had opted for a different treatment.“I ended up having quite a strange few months,” he said. “Because I announced it on the radio, I was contacted about an alternative.”
With a characteristic light touch, Valentine said he was “in perfect health now,” but his treatment was continuing. That included regular endoscopy ultrasounds and scans to monitor whether the cancer had returned and procedures to have a balloon inflated in his oesophagus to reopen it. “Hopefully then that’s treatable, and if I get through those couple of years, well then I’m probably pretty right.”Valentine spent an hour of his first show back discussing “how to make big medical decisions” with Bourke, fellow ABC broadcaster Dr Norman Swan and joint Australian of the Year, Professor Richard Scolyer, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.
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