Former royal butler, Paul Burrell, appeared on ITV morning show Lorraine on Monday, February 27, to give viewers an update of his health and share his cancer journey ahead of his first operation. The friend of the late Princess Diana, revealed his diagnosis live on Lorraine at the end of January, and in the emotional update admitted: "I'm going to be a mess for a very long time".
Viewers watched as the 64-year-old arrived at The Christie hospital in Manchester for his pre-op consultation and told the camera: "It's a little bit scary. I’m apprehensive because I don’t know what to expect and I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. So today I’ll find out the answers to all my questions."
He later explained how he will be going in for a two-hour procedure where they will "inject radium into my prostate". He added: "My recovery will be for the rest of that week. And then for the next three weeks I’ll have to go to radiotherapy appointments to kill it from the outside as well as the inside.
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“Hopefully at the end of that period I’ll be all clear and just battle with the hormone treatment, which will last for a considerable time."
Reflecting on his journey, Paul was seen getting emotional as he discussed his future with his husband Graham Cooper.
"This isn't about me, is it?" he said. "It's about the big picture - it’s about my hubby, Coop. It’s about our relationship, the way forward, so I had to talk about all of that. That’s a very important part of the jigsaw.”
When he exclusively spoke about his diagnosis to Lorraine Kelly, 63, last month, he revealed how the hormone therapy treatment he was on had been taking him on an "emotional rollercoaster", and on Monday reiterated this to Lorraine fans as he mentioned how he was told he'd need to continue it after the operation. He added: "So I'm going to be a mess for a very long time. But you have to trade off certain things to get to a point of living."
In January, Paul told how his diagnosis came after a routine blood test he had had last summer - as part of a medical check for a television show he was featuring on - had shown elevated levels of PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen). Although asymptomatic, a follow-up MRI showed he had prostate cancer.
Since, he has urged men to go and get themselves checked out, imploring them to "go and have a simple blood test. You owe it to your partners. You owe it to your families. You owe it to the people who love you. Just go and have a simple test. If they catch it early, you’ll get through it too, like me."
Viewers also saw Paul attend a CanSurvive UK support group where he met two cancer survivors - Maurice and Winston - who shared their own experience with prostate cancer and gave him an insight into the treatment he would be getting.
Asking the pair why they think men don't t talk about this more openly and visit the doctors, Maurice said: "I think there’s a stigma, an embarrassment, more than anything else. And growing up in the Caribbean community we are always told that men are supposed to be strong and not talk about things and I think that’s part of the problem. As we all know, a problem shared is a problem halved."
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV1 & ITVX.
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