Gardeners' World's Carol Klein admits 'I'm lucky' after devastating health diagnosis
The 79-year-old revealed she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer
Gardeners' World star Carol Klein says she’s “lucky” after a devastating health diagnosis earlier this year.
The 79-year-old revealed she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. It meant the much-loved gardening expert had to take some time away to recover at her home in Devon.
However, she was back on screens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, just weeks after undergoing the procedure. Writing on Instagram, she said the time recovering was spent finishing her book and sowing seeds.
Now, speaking to MyWeekly magazine, she said the support from her friends and family helped speed up her recovery. She said: “I was lucky and had a positive outcome.”
Carol, who first appeared on Gardeners’ World in 1989, thanked her local doctors following the diagnosis. She said: “Well I just want to thank Dr. Anna Conway and all the staff of the breast care clinic at North Devon District Hospital for their care and kindness and also their incredible efficiency. They've been brilliant, a real tribute to the NHS."
Carol’s fame soared after she joined Channel 4’s Garden Party in 1996. Although it wasn’t until nine years later she joined Gardeners’ World on a permanent basis.
She has even filmed gardening shows from her own Glebe Cottage home in North Devon. And while she has had a glistening career, Carol admits “everything has always just happened”.
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The Lancashire-born star says she has never been a typical sort of TV presenter. This is something she says has helped fans warm to her.
Speaking to MyWeekly, she added: “One year at Chelsea, a northern lady came up to me and said ‘ee Carol, we love you on t’telly, we’ve got no time for those pretty ones’.”
Carol has now penned a book, aptly called her Hortobiography, that details a varied life that has seen her working as a teacher, a shop assistant, a bus conductor, and an illustrator in Rome amongst other things. At one point she even found herself sitting in a bath with John Lennon and confronting a member of the National Front.
Gardeners’ World airs on BBC Two at 8pm on Friday.
