Emmerdale star Tony Audenshaw has detailed his late wife Ruth’s battle with pancreatic cancer ahead of a fundraising cycle ride in her memory.
The soap star, who has played Bob Hope on the Dales for more than 20 years, lost his wife in April 2017.
The Lancashire-born actor appeared on This Morning on Thursday to raise awareness of the early signs of pancreatic cancer, telling Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that his wife’s tumour was initially said to be “inoperable”.
While the couple did then manage to find a doctor who could remove the tumour with surgery, the cancer had unfortunately spread to other parts of Ruth’s body.
Sitting in the ITV studio, Tony explained: “Part of the thing when you have surgery is that you can’t have chemotherapy for a little while because, obviously chemotherapy kills the good cells as well as the bad cells, so while it was all clinging together, some cells got loose.
“It was quite devastating, because it was probably two months after the operation that we found out it had spread already.”
Sitting in the This Morning studio, he explained that he decided to “live life like you are retired” after Ruth’s death, spurred on by her positive attitude amid her diagnosis.
Tony said: “Ruth went on her last harsh chemotherapy and there were days when she was really tired and couldn’t do much, but on the days where she felt good, she was doing stuff.
“She met up with friends, she carried on cycling because she loved cycling and it was a case of not being stuck in the hospital all the time or going for appointments all the time, getting out on that bike and feeling the wind on her hair.
“It was just brilliant, we did loads of stuff, we went on loads of breaks and when she was well enough, we did things.”
Holly replied: “I’m so sorry that you lost her in your life. She sounds like an amazing lady, that’s for sure.”
Tony now devotes much of his spare time to raising money and awareness for charity.
He joined the Emmerdale marathon team not long after starting on the show, supporting Blood Cancer UK and has run more than 50 marathons.
Holly continued: “You are getting on the bike yourself and taking part in this London ride. How’s the training going?”
Tony explained that the Emmerdale have a fundraising cycle team called the ‘Wheelpackers’, instead of the Woolpackers, and are training together.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
