TARBY: JONES HELPING ME FIGHT CANCER NOT UNUSUAL
‘Getting better thanks to my old pal Tom’
COMEDIAN Jimmy Tarbuck has been fighting prostate cancer with help from his singer pal Tom Jones.
Tarby, 80, told how chats and meals with TV coach Sir Tom have kept his spirits up over the past six months.
He also revealed doctors told him his cancer has not spread, and he is already plotting a comeback with a tour next year.
Jimmy said of his pal’s support: “Tom rings me and says ‘How are you then? Let’s go and have an Italian’.
“I have also been over to his to see him and he is a serious old showbusiness friend.”
Jimmy said it was The Voice coach Tom, also 80, who encouraged him to get tested – ultimately saving his life.
He added: “I was backstage at one of his concerts just before my 80th birthday and I rushed past him to go to the toilet.
“I had been having this uncontrollable urge to pee a lot and Tom clocked what was going on and said, ‘Jimmy, get your prostate tested’.
“It’s thanks to him that the doctors caught it, hopefully before it has spread.”
Opening up about his treatment, Jimmy, who lives in Surrey, said: “I have been having injections and tablets on a daily basis. I’m doing the lot. I’ve got every pain you can have.
“I realised you have got to have a sense of humour about it when you are having a big needle injected in your stomach.
“At my last check the cancer hadn’t spread and I have had pretty good reports. They said, ‘You won’t die from it. But you can die with it’.
“But there are thousands of men who have prostate cancer. I am taking the medication to fight it and if we can find a cure, even better.”
Jimmy added: “I’d love to get to 100, but I take each day exactly as it comes. I’m still here, still punching away. I am going on the road because I love it.”
A show in Norwich next June is his first date. A Channel 5 documentary about his illness is also lined up. He added: “I get up every morning, clean my teeth, look in the mirror and say to myself, ‘You’re still here, you lucky bugger’.”