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BBC Radio 1 DJ Adele Roberts reveals she’s cancer free: “I am so grateful”

The presenter had bravely documented her battle with the disease since October

By Joe Goggins

Adele Roberts with her oncologist at Whittington Hospital, London, June 2022
The presenter has been relentless in her positivity. (Photo: Adele Roberts/Instagram)

Adele Roberts, the BBC Radio 1 presenter, is officially cancer free, she has announced.

Having documented her journey with the illness ever since being diagnosed with bowel cancer in October of last year, Roberts shared via her Instagram page today (June 27) that she has been given the all-clear.

Sharing a picture of herself and a doctor who has been leading her treatment, she wrote: “The day I’ve been waiting for.

“Hearing the words ‘you’re free of cancer’ absolutely took my breath away. I keep replaying it in my mind.”

“It was the most beautiful sound I think I’ve ever heard,” she continued in the caption to the photo, which sees her pictured at Whittington Hospital in North London, where she has been undergoing treatment.

“Even though I was praying Dr Khan would say that to me I don’t think my head let me believe it until I heard it.”

‘Everything we’ve been through seems to be swirling around in my body and life feels a bit surreal at the moment,” the message went on, “BUT I AM SO GRATEFUL! I am counting my blessings.” 

The presenter has been deeply candid about her battle with the disease, detailing her experience of chemotherapy and her adaptation to her stoma in unflinching detail, all the while maintaining a relentless positivity. In typically selfless fashion, she took a moment today to address those still fighting cancer, telling them she is “in awe” of them. 

“The courage, the strength, the determination,” she wrote, “and at times, the humour you have shown has been nothing short of super human. You’ve inspired me and given me the fire to never give up.  You’re warriors and it’s thanks to seeing you being so strong that’s kept me going. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Sometimes it took me all my strength just to get out of bed and face the day but I still did it.”

In a particularly poignant nod, Roberts paid tribute to her fiancee, Kate Holderness, calling her “the reason I had the strength to get out of bed every morning. I will never leave you and I will always find you. In this life and the the next.” Roberts had already returned the Radio 1 airwaves; her Weekend Breakfast Show goes out at 7am on Saturdays and Sundays.