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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
World
Zara Woodcock & Cian O'Broin

Inside Tommy Walsh's cancer diagnosis and past fall-out with Alan Titchmarsh

Tommy Walsh captivated audiences after he appeared on Ground Force with Alan Titchmarsh and Charlie Dimmock.

He featured in Ground Force in 1997 after fixing a producer's pond and became one of TV's most recognisable faces.

Top class expertise along with incredible garden makeovers were what viewers saw on TV but their behind-the-scenes relationships were a little different, The Mirror reports.

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As he discovered he had breast cancer, there were a number of other things in his personal life.

Fall-Out with Titchmarsh

Although the Ground Force seemed like family by the third season of the popular show, there were a number of rows behind the scenes.

Tommy accidentally covered the flower beds in sawdust, making Alan very angry.

"Call me picky if you like but I like my Ground Force gardens to be pristine when we finish them," he told Radio Times. I do not get a thrill from seeing them covered in dandruff," he added.

"For a while, it did get a bit hairy," said Tommy. "But when we'd both calmed down we actually kissed (yes) and made up. What made me cross was that I was working flat out to get everything ready and here was Alan moaning about a bit of stray sawdust."

Alan later noted, the one good thing to come out of the argument was that it silenced their fellow host Charlie for a few moments.

Breast cancer diagnosis

Like many, Tommy wasn't aware that men could get breast cancer, until he did.

He discovered two lumps on his chest in 2002 and went to see a GP.

He was told to meet a consultant at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

"I just buried myself in my work and then went along for the day surgery where the lumps were removed under a general anaesthetic," he recalled, adding: "It was only then that it sort of hit me that this could actually be serious and I could have breast cancer, like my relatives."

The lumps were found to be benign, but he said it was "a bit of a wake-up call" about the disease.

Throat cancer

Tommy recently discovered a lump in his throat.

During a cancer awareness campaign in 2022, he found a cancerous lump in his body.

The TV hero said: "I went to my GP about an unrelated issue and while I was there, he discovered this lump in my throat that he was a bit concerned about.

"He said it may be nothing but that he would rather I went and got it checked and, unfortunately, it turned out to be cancerous.

"I had to go in straight away and have surgery to remove it. I am now fully recovered and even back playing football!"

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