Dan Walker reveals horror cancer scare which saw him rushed to hospital after his head doubled in size
Dan Walker has revealed he was diagnosed with cancer during a terrifying hospital stay in Poland.
The TV presenter, 46, was taken to hospital after his kidneys stopped working and he was pumped with eight liters of saline.
His head also doubled in size and he had to walk around naked because his body was so bloated he couldn’t fit into his boxer shorts.
Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, Dan said he is forever grateful to his former colleague Richard Hughes who accompanied him to hospital.
He said: ‘I was in Poland a few years ago attending the European Championships and I had a slightly strange lump in my stomach.
Terrifying: Dan Walker has revealed he was told he had cancer during a terrifying hospital stay in Poland
‘My breathing changed a bit and I went to the medical center in the dispatch center there, and within two and a half minutes I was in the back of an ambulance on the way to a Polish ER.
‘And a man called Richard Hughes, who is now editor of Match Of The Day, and a man I had worked with for many years, dropped everything and came with me.
‘You have moments in life when you think that sometimes you need someone to hold your hand.
‘It got a bit scary that evening: around two o’clock in the morning a Polish consultant came in and told me I had cancer because they had seen shadows on my kidney. He used the word tumor.’
The pair had a fixer with them who spoke both Polish and English and Dan asked her to confirm whether he had understood the doctor correctly.
She said, “He thinks you have cancer in your kidney.”
Dan tried to process the shocking news and wondered if he should call his wife and family to tell them.
He praised Richard for remaining calm and said he was “very wise, stupid and lovely” that evening.
Ordeal: His head also doubled in size and he had to walk around naked because his body was so bloated he couldn’t fit into his boxer shorts (photo in August 2023)
Shock: It turned out that Dan didn’t have cancer, but instead was battling a serious virus that damaged the functioning of his kidneys (photo in November 2023)
Dan asked if the lead consultant could look at his scan to be 100% sure it was cancer before calling his family and telling them.
He said: ‘At eight in the morning she came straight in and said, ‘I’ve got good news, it’s not a tumour.’
It turned out that Dan didn’t have cancer, but instead was battling a serious virus that was damaging the function of his kidneys.
He said: ‘There were a series of black shadows on my kidneys. Since they only had about 30 percent functionality left, I had some weird kind of virus that really affected them.
‘It’s such a strange night because then they came in and pumped eight liters of saline into my body to try to get my kidney going again.
‘The next day they let me go home, they gave me medicine to fill my stomach and very heavy medicine to try to get the kidneys going again.
‘The next day I woke up and went to the bathroom mirror – my face and my head were about twice the size they are now.
‘Every part of my body was swollen and I couldn’t even get my boxers on.
‘I was walking around naked, I couldn’t put my pants on because my body was so bloated from the water that wasn’t being processed.
“I was shaped like Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Dan to recover and his kidneys were functioning normally again within 48 hours.