Homes Under The Hammer star Tommy Walsh has revealed cancer has been found close to his lung but he is now receiving cutting edge treatment and is confident he will beat the disease
Homes Under The Hammer and ex-Ground Force star Tommy Walsh has revealed to fans that he is receiving cutting edge cancer treatment in his bid to defeat the disease once and for all.
The 67-year-old is having radiation treatment on the NHS which pinpoints cancer cells. He said: “My cancer came back earlier this year….they found it again under the lung. So I had to have this new treatment called SABR and what it is is radiotherapy which targets it to an exact spot without damaging the organs around it. So they used that and it shrunk. It is now not anywhere else. It is going away. Because it is shrinking it will shrink down to nothing and disappear. I will then just have to have annual checks. It has worked for me really well.”
The cancer was found just outside his lung and Tommy explained how the discovery left him feeling "lucky". He added: "They thought it was in the lung and then I would have been in trouble. Surgery would have been serious where they cut you open and take a big lump of bone out of the rib and then they would have to put a piece of metal mesh in to stop the lung falling out of the hole. So I did not want but we had that as a backup. The SABR treatment has worked and I am healthy so I have not been in any pain.”
TV presenter Tommy also heaped praise on the NHS for the way they had treated his cancer. He said: “I was treated on the NHS. That is where I go. They have sorted it out and it is a great. I would always go to the NHS. They have looked after me throughout this whole cancer shenanigans so why would I want to go somewhere else.”
Tommy has helped transform hundreds of gardens and properties for lucky homeowners over his two-decade long career, and while he's now the face of Homes Under The Hammer, it was another iconic makeover show that made his name. Ground Force, which first aired in 1997, saw television presenter Tommy, alongside fellow hosts, celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh and green-fingered maestro Charlie Dimmock, create dream landscapes. Although the trio became best friends filming the family-friendly gardening show, there were times behind-the-scenes when they didn't exactly see eye to eye. Once Alan infamously lost his rag with Tommy over sawdust - but they literally kissed and made up after the 'hairy' encounter.
"When we first started filming we were polite to each other for the first two series but by the third series we were like family," explained Charlie to Hello! magazine in June 2021. "My main memory of Ground Force was laughing lots. It was the same team week in, week out, as well as the same production and crew. You know what it's like when you work with a team of people and you get on."
During one blazing row in 2000, the usually polite Alan reportedly lost his rag at Tommy while planting beds in a garden in Pitsea, Essex, after the DIY expert accidentally covered the soil with sawdust while sawing timber. In an interview with the Radio Times, Tommy revealed: "Call me picky if you like but I like my Ground Force gardens to be pristine when we finish them. I do not get a thrill from seeing them covered in dandruff."
Although the two men did manage to put the incident aside, Tommy admits it did create some tension. Recalling the aftermath of their fight, Tommy continued: "For a while, it did get a bit hairy. 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."
According to Alan, the one good thing to come out of the heated exchange was that it silenced their fellow host Charlie for a few moment. "She just kept her head down and fiddled with her water feature," he added. But they quickly put the incident to one side and remain friends to this day despite going off in their own separate directions.
