Clare Balding is back in our living rooms as the main presenter of this year’s Paralympics coverage – and while she is riding high on another successful year, Clare and her wife Alice Arnold have faced hardships in their lives.
In 2009, Clare was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had a cyst and her thyroid gland removed before undergoing radioactive iodine treatment.
She announced in January 2011 that she had been given the all-clear after having a lymph node removed.
Clare said: “I had to have a little operation just before Christmas to take out a nasty little lymph node and there was a worry that I might have to have more treatment. But I had a lovely letter from my oncologist just after Christmas saying, ‘Hurrah, no more treatment’, so I’m very happy about that.”
Clare Balding on her cancer treatment
Clare has since reflected on her cancer treatment and the support she received from her family.
In a 2018 interview with Country & Town House, Clare said: “That was difficult but we got over it. My mother and Alice became much closer after my cancer scare – it changed their relationship completely because I didn’t want to talk about it and they did. Now Mum is incredibly fond of Alice and my father absolutely adores her.”
But Clare said that her cancer scare isn’t the hardest thing she and Alice have faced together. She gives that title to the death of Alice’s mum, who passed away in April 2018.
Death of Alice’s mum
Speaking in the same interview, Clare said: “That has been the worst thing we have had to live through together. Alice was incredibly close to her mum – they spoke to each other every day.
“She died two days after her 91st birthday, so looking back now I’m really glad that we threw a big party for her 90th in 2017. It was a moment to say all the things we wanted to say while she was still alive.”
Clare presents the BBC’s coverage of the Paralympics on Channel 4 this week.
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