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Adele Roberts: Kate and William were lovely during my cancer journey

The presenter became the fastest woman to complete the London Marathon with an ileostomy last year.

Hannah Roberts
Sunday 22 September 2024 12:54 BST
Adele Roberts announced she was free of cancer in June 2022 (Ian West/PA)
Adele Roberts announced she was free of cancer in June 2022 (Ian West/PA) (PA Archive)

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Radio presenter Adele Roberts has said the Prince and Princess of Wales wrote to her after she was declared cancer-free and described it as “lovely”.

The 45-year-old DJ announced she was free of the disease in June 2022, after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in late 2021.

Earlier this year, Kate announced she was undergoing treatment for cancer in an emotional video message and told others battling the disease “you are not alone”.

Roberts told the Daily Mirror: “It’s strange that when I first met William and Catherine, none of us knew what would lay ahead for us.

“So, I ran the marathon in 2017 and 2018 for their mental health charity, and we didn’t know what was in the future.

“But how strange that we’re all connected now in that sense.

“They were amazing when I first got diagnosed, and when I got declared cancer-free they wrote to me, saying: ‘Thank you for sharing your story, because it’s going to help so many other people and inspire them’.

“They were just really lovely.

“Catherine going through what she has been through just shows they mean what they say because she is sharing her story and she doesn’t need to.”

She added: “You never know, like, maybe in a way, them maybe being a little bit aware of what I’ve been through helped Catherine.

“I don’t know. I hope it did. I really do. I haven’t been in touch because I know when you go in through it, it’s hard and she will be probably have felt overwhelmed with just life – let alone people getting in touch.

“It’s great to see how she’s responded and shared her story.”

The presenter, who competed on Dancing On Ice earlier in the year, has been open about her cancer journey, particularly with her use of a stoma bag, which attaches to her abdomen and collects her faeces, and her experience of chemotherapy.

Roberts set a Guinness World Record last year as the fastest woman to complete the London Marathon with an ileostomy and is now looking to tackle all of the “big six” marathons across the globe.

Kate recently announced the completion of her chemotherapy treatment in a deeply personal video with her family and said her focus was “doing what I can to stay cancer-free”.

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