Clegg tells of shock at son’s cancer diagnosis after ‘tiny bump’ found

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 the top of his chest.

In an interview with a national newspaper, Mr Clegg described the 15-year-old, whose care he shares with his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, as an “incredibly active, physically strong boy”.

He said: “To this day, I don’t know what possessed me to take him to the GP,” he said. “It was those early days in September, you know, 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, buying clothes for the new term – and Antonio said he had this thing. We had an afternoon, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I just take him, and he’ll stop going on about it’.”

The former Sheffield Hallam MP said it was unusual for his son to complain, and that his decision to seek help was out of character – as normally he is “quite brutal” owing to the mentality of his Dutch mother who thought going to the doctors should be avoided.

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. But he took pretty much one look at him and said, ‘That’s not right’,” he told the publication.

Mr Clegg said: “Antonio was extraordinarily brave and resilient. I’m not sure he fully appreciated the enormity of it at the time.”