Morpurgo: I’ve been treated for cancer of the voice box
SIR MICHAEL Morpurgo has had radiotherapy for cancer of the larynx, he revealed yesterday.
The children’s author, 74, said he was treated successfully at the The Royal Marsden hospital in London following the ‘unwelcome diagnosis’.
He added: ‘Last year, I was diagnosed with an early cancer of the larynx and my perspective on so much changed.
‘Suddenly the disease became central to my life at home, and to my work. It had to be confronted, dealt with, both surgically and psychologically.
‘Now, with excellent prospects for a full recovery, with my voice finding new strength, I have time to look back at the whole experience, at how fortunate I have been.’
The War Horse author pulled out of several literary festivals last year, including Henley in Oxfordshire and Budleigh Salterton in Devon during September. At the time, his publicist said: ‘Due to ongoing problems with his voice and treatment he has been receiving, Michael Morpurgo has been advised he must cancel speaking engagements for the time-being.
‘He hates to let people down, but must do this to give himself the best chance of recovery.’
The former Children’s Laureate opened up about his treatment in the Spectator magazine.
In a diary entry he said: ‘By 74 it is easy to feel that you have seen it all, done it all, that nothing much surprises you any more.
‘Even an unwelcome medical diagnosis does not surprise you. You cope because you have to. You know it’s what happens to us all.
‘You’ve been lucky all these years. Now it’s your turn, stuff happens. That’s life, you tell yourself, or the other thing.
‘Friends and family much younger have been ill, and suffered long; some have fallen off the perch younger than I am now. I’ve been a lucky old parrot.’
Speaking of his treatment, he spoke of his ‘beaming time, locked inside my plastic mask, down in the wonderful radiology department at the Marsden’.
Sir Michael added: ‘Just trust in the doctors and the nurses, lie there, forget the whirring and clunking of the machine, those life-prolonging rays beaming into you – thank God for Marie Curie.’
The former teacher said he thought of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchild, as well as the youngsters he had taught or had read his books. He added: ‘They were all the hope I needed, lying in that hospital being healed. It wasn’t only the radiotherapy doing the healing. It was the memories of those children too.
‘They helped me through, helped me to keep hoping, keep believing. They still do, every day.
‘My thoughts turned often to our children and grandchildren, and our great-grandchild, and how their lives might be in this everchanging world; and to other children who I have taught, who read my books, who write to me often, who I meet.
‘All gave me great cause for hope, for rejoicing.’