Clare Balding has revealed that she first realised something was wrong with her health after spotting an unexpected lump on her neck while watching herself back on television.
The veteran broadcaster, who appears alongside her wife Alice Arnold on Friday night’s episode of Celebrity Gogglebox, recalled how the alarming discovery came while she was presenting the Olympia International Horse Show for the BBC in December 2008.
Speaking on the Stick to Rugby podcast, Ms Balding explained that she had not noticed any changes before reviewing footage of herself moments before going live.
“It was an odd one because I hadn’t really noticed feeling any different, and I was (presenting) show jumping at Christmas when it was at Olympia and I recorded an opening link,” she said.
“I was watching it back on the monitor as I was about to go live, and I’m looking at the monitor and you know that if you don’t really look at yourself in the mirror, you don’t really notice anything?”
She continued: “I was looking at the monitor and I saw this big lump on my neck, like a big lump and I thought that’s really weird.
“And I felt it and I was like ‘where has that come from?'”
After returning home for Christmas, a member of her family urged her to seek medical advice about the lump.
Further tests and examinations later confirmed Ms Balding had thyroid cancer.
Despite the diagnosis, the presenter remained committed to her broadcasting work and arranged for her surgery to fit around her professional commitments.
The following year, she underwent radioactive iodine therapy, which successfully treated the disease.
Ms Balding has since confirmed there was no evidence that the cancer had spread beyond her thyroid.
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Over the course of her career, Ms Balding has become one of Britain’s most recognisable sports presenters, covering major events including Wimbledon, the Olympic Games and horse racing.
According to Cancer Research UK, thyroid cancer is relatively uncommon, with around 4,000 people diagnosed with the disease each year in the UK.
It is more frequently diagnosed in women than men.
The NHS says symptoms can include: “A lump in the front, lower part of your neck – the lump usually feels hard, slowly gets bigger and is not painful, a hoarse voice, a sore throat, difficulty swallowing or breathing and pain in the front of your neck, or a feeling like something is pressing against your neck.”
Ms Balding will feature alongside Alice Arnold on Friday’s edition of Celebrity Gogglebox, with Jonathan Ross and daughter Honey, Rylan Clark and his mother Linda, Paddy McGuinness and Vernon Kay, and Roman Kemp with his father Martin also appearing.
Ms Balding is one of several prominent television presenters to have spoken publicly about cancer and serious health conditions in recent months.
BBC presenter Lauren Laverne recently revealed she has been diagnosed with smouldering myeloma, a chronic blood and bone marrow disorder that can develop into blood cancer.
The Desert Island Discs host said the condition was detected through routine monitoring following her previous cancer treatment and told fans her current risk remains “pretty low”, meaning she does not require treatment at this stage.
Actress and television presenter Lisa Faulkner also disclosed that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, while veteran broadcaster Bill Buckley revealed he underwent High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment for prostate cancer.
Mr Buckley has since encouraged men to remain vigilant, stressing that the disease often produces no symptoms in its early stages.
Elsewhere, Sky Sports News presenter Jo Wilson shared the emotional impact of being mistakenly told her cervical cancer had returned.
Ms Wilson, who was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer in 2022, later learned following a specialist review that the suspected recurrence in her lymph nodes was incorrect.
She has since spoken about the anxiety many cancer survivors face while living with the fear that the disease could return.
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