Radio host Ali Clarke’s cancer update
Mix 102.3 host Ali Clarke has made a brief return to the airwaves following surgery for breast cancer.
Clarke last week revealed in an emotional breakfast show broadcast that she was about to undergo a mastectomy following a shock cancer diagnosis.
Clarke phoned in to the show this morning from home, saying her surgery went well and she had been so inspired by the stories of other cancer survivors contacting her that she walked home from hospital.
“The doctor said it all went so well and so amazingly, so much so that I’m actually home now. Which is just unbelievable, getting back into your own bed,” she said.
“But yeah, it’s just wonderful to be home. And the kids can fight over not looking after me.”
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Clarke spoke about her emotions post-surgery.
“On a serious note, it wasn’t as confronting as I think I had it in my mind,” she said.
“And my biggest relief actually was when the kids came in and I asked them if they wanted to have a look. And they all said yes, and I know this sound ridiculous but they didn’t recoil. It was nowhere near as confronting as I’d built up in my mind, which was a massive, massive relief.”
Clarke was then asked about her mental recovery, given her feelings expressed last week about losing a breast and the impact on and perceptions of womanhood.
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“Definitely up and down – I was on a high… and then you sort of do come crashing down,” she said.
“You wake up and you go man, these incredible doctors and scientists, medicos you know, they know the best thing to do. This is what I’ve had to do to get better.
“The other thing that has been absolutely unbelievable, you know, still people are contacting me and I’ve been having sort of conversations via socials and that with so many women and even their partners, who’ve gone through it… and they’ve come out the other side.
“And man… so many people have done it so much harder than I’ve done and wow, they’re all absolute warriors and it makes feel absolutely inspired just to get home and bloody walk home from hospital.” And she did.
Clarke was then asked what do her fellow radio hosts say when callers ask after her health: “Do we know? Can we say Ali’s beaten the cancer for now, or what do we say?”
“No, no, no… so you just say going really well,” Clarke said.
“Everything’s gone well so far but I’ve still got to wait for some results. I think anybody that’s been through this knows that you kind of wait, for all the stuff they’ve taken out of you to go and get examined.
“So I’ve got a few more days of that and then once we know that, that will determine what happens next. It’s more treatment or if I can then say, ‘Hey, I’ve beaten it’, and then we get on getting better.”
