Nick Clegg & wife: Our son’s secret cancer fight
Antonio, 14, beat blood disease
NICK Clegg and his wife have talked for the first time about their teenaged son’s battle with blood cancer.
The former Deputy Prime Minister and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez said telling 14-year-old Antonio he had blood cancer was “one of the toughest things we have ever done” and spoke movingly of his “brutal” treatment. They revealed that check-ups had not detected any return of the disease.
Antonio, now 15, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma last September.
The couple told ITV’s Lorraine chemotherapy left him with complete hair loss, vomiting, extreme tiredness, and with no defences against infection. Mr Clegg, 50, who led the Liberal Democrats for eight years, said: “It’s a very brutal thing. You’re poisoning the body.
“It’s irrational, but you just have this almost physical wish to try and take it off your kid and take it yourself.”
Lawyer Ms Gonzalez Durantez, 49, added: “You go to, ‘Why me, why my son?’” The couple, who also have boys Alberto, 13, and Miguel, eight, heaped praise on NHS staff at University College London Hospital, Central London.
They went on TV to publicise charity Bloodwise and back research by Stephen Daw, Antonio’s consultant, to find better and kinder treatments.