Emmerdale actor Tony Audenshaw has opened up his wife, Ruth's, cancer heartache.
The soap star, who is renowned for his portrayal of Bob Hope on the ITV show, lost his wife in 2017 after her battle with pancreatic cancer. Ruth was just 43-years-old when she died and Tony appeared on today's edition of This Morning to speak about his loss.
Tony told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield he is planning to cycle 100 miles around London to raise funds for Cancer Research in honour of his wife. He said: "With pancreatic cancer, over half the people die within three months of diagnosis.
READ MORE: This Morning's travel expert tells families when to book holiday to make huge saving
"It’s been the case since the 70s it’s really been left behind regarding funding." Tony went to talk about his wife's symptoms before the diagnosis.
He said: "She was a really fit person, she ran, she cycled and it was part of that that masked the symptoms in that her urine was very dark and it could have been dehydration."
Doctors initially though Ruth had a urinary infection, but her body started to turn yellow and she was soon diagnosed with cancer. He said: "It was pretty grim. I was an optimist expecting it to be a benign tumour. But the doctor said in no uncertain terms 'it’s cancer.'
The 57-year-old said his wife was initially told the cancer couldn't be operated on. Ruth received a second open and underwent surgery in Germany, but the cancer had already spread.
He added: "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."
Ruth underwent chemotherapy and Tony said they lived like they were retired as they made the most of their time left together.
He added: “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."
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
