ABC radio presenter James Valentine stepped away from the microphone six months ago after telling listeners a diagnosis of oesophageal cancer meant he needed “fairly dramatic surgery”. The plan was for him to follow five weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy with an operation to remove most of his oesophagus and fashion a new one by attaching the top of his stomach to his throat. But as the popular broadcaster and musician made an upbeat return to ABC Sydney on Monday afternoon, he revealed that three days before surgery, he had opted for a different treatment.
James Valentine: “I decided how to deal with my gut by listening to my gut”. Credit: James Alcock “I ended up having quite a strange few months,” he said. “Because I announced it on the radio, I was contacted about an alternative.
” After meeting Professor Michael Bourke, the director of gastrointestinal endoscopy at Westmead Hospital, Valentine decided on a newer treatment that removed the cancer cells through surgery down his throat. With a characteristic light touch, Valentine said he was “in perfect health now,” but his treatment was continuing. That included regular endoscopy ultrasounds and scans to monitor whether the cancer had returned and procedures to have a balloon inflated in his oesophagus to reopen it.
“I’m at a point where something could recur in the next one or two years,” he said. “That’s fairly likely. “Hopefully then that’s treatable, and if I get through those cou.