My Terrifying Battle With Brain Tumoursby Spandau Ballet's Martin Kemp
Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp today described his 'terrifying' battle with two brain tumours.
The 47-year-old guitarist and former EastEnders actor, who has now been given the all clear, first discovered he had a tumour in 1995.
He starts a world reunion tour with the Eighties pop giants, including brother Gary, next month.
Today, as he opened a cancer unit at the London hospital that saved his life, Kemp said: 'The first tumour was the size of a squashed grapefruit and doctors could cut my skull to get to it.
'What was terrifying was the second tumour - doctors avoided talking about it. I was very worried about the little guy in the middle of my head.
'After two years, doctors said it was growing and wanted to cut it out. But my wife didn’t want me to have the operation because it would leave so much collateral damage.
'She found a doctor who said it could be attacked with radiation, with an early form of Gamma Knife technology.
'Within six months of treatment there were signs it was dying and today there is nothing left of it.'
Barts in Smithfield was one of only two UK hospitals with the 'targeted' radiation technology when the star fell ill 14 years ago.
Today he paid tribute to the trust by opening the £3m London Gamma Knife Centre at Barts, specialising in the radiosurgery.
'It's great that the Gamma Knife surgery is now available and that so many more people will have access to this kind of treatment.
'When I was first dianosed there was nobody out there I knew who had come through it. It was a terrifying situation, but I want to be an example for patients now.
'At first it is such a massive shock you start to think it is the end of the world.'
[dailymail.co.uk - Sep.09]
