Star of Gardeners’ World Monty Don previously reflected on having bone marrow cancer at the age of 10 and undergoing radiotherapy for a year.
Following his childhood diagnosis, Monty has a scar from his elbow to his shoulder after they took the bone marrow from his upper arm.
And, in an interview with The Times, Monty revealed that he knew his cancer was “serious” when his mother came to see him every day. He admitted his father only visited once while he was in hospital.
Gardeners’ World host Monty Don on his cancer battle
“I was in Battle Hospital in Reading, and I knew it was serious because while my father only came once, my mother came every day. And then I had radiotherapy for a year,” he said.
“I really liked that because I had a day off from school and my mother would take me and we would have lunch at Heelas, the department store, and I would have steak and kidney pie,” he said.
Monty praised his “neurotic” mum for visiting all the time, stating he “liked doing anything” if it meant spending quality time with her.
‘Sickly child’
In a chat with The Guardian about his illness, Monty said it was another nine years before he realised he was “robust” and “vigorous” after being a “sickly child”.
“Since then I’ve taken ill health to be an irritating interruption into what is a fairly reliable stream of good health.”
And he keeps that good health by staying active. He said previously: “From the ages of 18 to 50 I ran, rowed and lifted weights at my home gym. Now I keep my exercise focused on working outside. Gym culture veers too much towards appearance. I’m able to dig and chop wood, and I challenge anybody who goes to the gym to come and work with me outside.”
Read more: Monty Don has ‘no regrets at all’ after stealing his friend’s wife: ‘He was very, very, very angry’
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