Beleaguered presenter Kaye Adams has revealed she recently underwent thyroid surgery on her neck after fears she had cancer.
She talked about it in Wednesday’s episode How to be 60the podcast she co-hosts with Karen MacKenzie, who battled breast cancer and showed off her scar and said she felt like Frankenstein’s monster.
Kaye, 63, said: “So I had a demi-thyroidectomy. I had felt my neck and felt that I could feel something.
“I went to a friend who is a nurse and asked her to take a look, expecting her to tell me not to be stupid, but she said, ‘I think you should get that checked out.'”
‘This was about 18 months ago, so you go to the GP, they investigate, and then you end up in hospital, they do a scan, thinking I was overreacting.
‘This has been hanging over my head for over a year’: Kaye Adams, (above) revealed in her podcast on Wednesday that she had her thyroid removed after fears of throat cancer
“I was thinking, damn, the two of us are going to be diagnosed with cancer. I just thought it was written in the terrible stars.
“They took a biopsy and said they didn’t know what was in it, and I said ‘leave it alone’ because I couldn’t face it.”
Karen said, “Never mind, are you mad?”
“I was last year too,” she replied. ‘I was constantly looking for thyroid cancer. They kept an eye on me and I went for another scan this year and they said it was better to get this out.
Karen said, “So you didn’t know if it was malignant or benign?”
“Well, apparently they can’t tell if there’s a growth on your thyroid,” she said. “They said it was indefinite. So they took it out.
“I walked to the hospital and the people there were wonderful. In addition to the cancer, there is also a risk to your voice box. When I left, they said it would take three weeks before I got the results.’
Kaye asked “unless it’s really horrible?” And the doctor answered: ‘yes’.
Kaye said that then the hospital called her with the results, she initially did not answer for fear of the worst because five days later the phone rang on a Saturday afternoon.
Kaye said when the hospital called her with the results, she initially didn’t answer for fear of the worst because the phone rang on a Saturday afternoon five days later.
The broadcaster sparked concern among her followers in March when she shared a fracture in her neck wrapped in a bandage
She did speak to them when they called for the third time two hours later. The news was good and ‘it was all good natured.’
Kaye said she was “jumping up and down like a kid at Christmas who had just gotten six ponies and a bicycle. What a relief’.
She added that she had gotten to the point where she feared that nothing good would happen anymore, that every phone call would bring bad news.
‘Because it’s been such a hellish year, you get into the head that nothing will ever be okay again. That everything will be bad, she said.
‘Last year, with my problems, as we call them. I just lost my appetite. I just didn’t want to eat anything. And all I wanted to eat was mango.”
In March, Kaye sparked concern among her followers earlier this week when she shared a fracture in her neck wrapped in a bandage.
During the podcast show at the time, Kaye spoke for the first time about being axed from her show on BBC Radio after three misconduct complaints against her were upheld.
Fighting back tears, she emotionally shared that she had endured “a brutal five months” after being initially suspended in October last year while an investigation took place.
Discussing her cancer scare, Kaye said, “Remember last summer…? I mean God last summer…let’s all try to forget last summer.
‘I found a lump in my neck. We interviewed Mark Steel, he told us about his experience with throat cancer. And as usual, once you’ve done an interview like that, you go away and start poking around.
“And I found what I thought was a lump. I haven’t told you in ages because obviously you were going through what you were going through and I thought, ‘That’s the last thing you need.’
“Anyway, it went on for weeks and weeks and weeks and I went to a friend of mine who’s a nurse and I said, ‘Can you get a little idea of that?’, fully expecting her to say, ‘Oh, don’t be stupid!’ And she said, “I’d get that checked out if I were you.” Just like that.
‘So I went to the doctor and they said, ‘Oh yeah, blood work…’ Anyway, this went on for a few weeks and I saw a specialist and so they want to do a scan and a biopsy, which they did last year.
“You know what it’s like, Karen, no matter how long you think, ‘Oh my God, this is it!’ Anyway, they said it was fine and they would just keep an eye on it.
“So that was just an arrangement. So I have to keep an eye on it. So I went back and they gave me an appointment, and so it’s a biopsy on your neck.”
Kaye said she had a second biopsy of the lump just a day before recording the podcast, which resulted in the bandage around her neck.
She explained: ‘The lady was very nice so she did a scan and then it’s like a needle in your neck, they have to try to get cells out of this… it’s a node in my thyroid.
“So maybe it should come out, maybe it shouldn’t, so we’ll see.”
Kaye said it has not gotten any bigger since the lump was found last year, but added it will “still be monitored” for any changes in the coming months.
She added: “They look at these things very closely, don’t they, you know the color of it, the shape of it, the this, the that, the next. Don’t know.
“She didn’t say anything like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ or something like that. It needs to be monitored, but I have to say it was kind of weird seeing someone with a big needle near your neck. I’m a little bruised, but at least I’m fine.
“And besides, I’m quite happy, because it’s not often that I have a better medical story than you, right?”
During the show, Kaye spoke about the ‘brutal’ time she endured after being axed from her BBC radio show following an investigation into her behaviour.
Sources close to the star have branded the ax as ‘sexist and a screw-over’ and ‘made no sense’ as she had worked at the BBC ‘without issue’ for 15 years.
Kaye said, “It’s hard, isn’t it? You know what I mean. It’s been a rough five months, there’s no doubt about that, and… you know it’s hard, right?’
She continued, “I’m torn because I don’t want anyone to think…I mean, who cares about my life anyway, it’s not that I expect people to, but obviously some people will be aware of what’s going on if I leave radio and all that.
“I’m torn between not wanting to seem like I’m ignoring things, but I also don’t see much point in saying much right now, and this is a time to process things, try to get my life back on track, try to get my mental health back on track, try to get my eating back on track, get my sleep back on track, and just get my life back on track….
“And also for the sake of Ian and the kids, you know, so I’m just going to stick with that at the moment, and you know, collect myself. I think that’s the best thing to do.
‘I went to Edinburgh this weekend to see the kids and my girls and took Bee with me. We just had a lovely day because I mean, I haven’t been as present for them as they’re used to, which was really sad, and so you know it was just so beautiful.
‘We were taking the dog for a walk and I could just hear them chatting about all their stuff. That was really nice, just to be with them. They’re such great girls, you know, and they support me so much.
Fighting back tears, Kaye paid tribute to her daughters for supporting her through the loss of her radio show.
She added: “You’re the mother, you’re the adult, it’s your job to take care of them. As you know, I do everything I can to take care of them, but I’m just so proud of… I’m so grateful for them.
“Yes, they are good girls, they are good girls. But we had Bee… Almighty God, it’s all sorrow, isn’t it? So Bee is 13, you know how it is with a blooming dog, and she now has cataracts and she is deaf as a deaf.
“So we’re in this park in Edinburgh, you let her go, she can’t hear you, she just can’t hear you, and she has no sense of direction and now, because it’s spring, she sees shadows all the time, so she’s forever startled and you’re yelling at her and she can’t hear you. We were like comedy capers.”
Kaye was suspended from her show on BBC Radio after three misconduct complaints against her were upheld.
One incident, in which Kaye allegedly used the offensive c-word to a colleague, is said to have occurred more than a decade ago and resulted in the person refusing to work on the show that day.
In another incident, the presenter allegedly waved a pen at a producer out of frustration over part of the day’s program.
Kaye is still a regular panellist and presenter on ITV’s Loose Women, having previously said she will be alongside the star.
