Nick Clegg tells of son’s cancer diagnosis
NICK Clegg has revealed how the decision to take his teenage son to the doctor for a “tiny bump” led to the shock diagnosis of blood cancer.
The former Deputy Prime Minister said it was after a family holiday in northern Spain in September 2016 that his son Antonio began complaining about a lump on his chest.
In an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine, Mr Clegg described the 15-year-old, who he shares with his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, as an “incredibly active, physically strong boy”.
He said. “It was those early days in September, when you have to get kids ready for school. Miriam had to work very heavily that week, so I was at home most of the time, helping to do the preparatory things – and Antonio said he had this thing.”
Mr Clegg said it was unusual for his son to complain. The former Liberal Democrat leader said the GP was “brilliant”, as “lymphoma is quite a difficult thing to diagnose”.
“You could barely see it with the naked eye,” he said.
Describing the cancer as like a “huge bunch of black grapes” on the X-ray, he said that from then on it felt as though they were “sailing through a storm”.
Mr Clegg said: “Antonio was extraordinarily brave. I’m not sure he fully appreciated the enormity of it at the time.”
He said his son is now back at school after undergoing chemotherapy treatment at University College Hospital, London, and taking heavy steroids.