Slade’s Noddy was among the first patients to receive ‘new chemotherapy regimen’

Slade’s Noddy Holder has revealed he was among the first British patients to receive “a new chemotherapy regimen” which saved his life.

The frontman was given six months to live after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in 2018. Yet he has since recovered after receiving a pioneering type of treatment at a Manchester hospital.

Talk to BBC BreakfastHolder revealed she was among the first patients in the UK to receive a new type of chemotherapy for her specific type of adenocarcinoma cancer.

“Luckily for me, I’m still here five years later,” he said on the show. An NHS statement added: “There are different types of oesophageal cancer and Noddy had a type of adenocarcinoma cancer which we think may respond well to this chemotherapy. »

Speaking on News from the sky Of the diagnosis and treatment, Holder said, “I was more worried about my family, how they were going to react, than I was about myself. I finally went to Christie Hospital in Manchester and said, “Well, has it been six months?” Is that it? Is this the end of the line?

“And they said, ‘Well, the only option you have is an experimental treatment that we’ve never tried before. We’ve had some success over the last 12 months with it, but have never tried it. » anyone over 60… because it was very, very hard.

“He said, ‘But your positive attitude and your spirit could help you, and are you ready to take the test?’ and I said, “Well, what choice do I really have?…” and I tried, it was hard, very hard, but five years later, I’m still standing.

Holder also revealed that he wakes his wife up every Christmas morning by bellowing the iconic lyrics ‘It’s Christmas’ from Slade’s 1973 festive hit ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’.

Speaking on BBC Breakfasthis wife Susan Holder explains that the Slade musician first makes a cup of tea before singing the lyrics. “I wake up the whole house and the neighbors,” he added.

Last year, Holder revealed the true inspiration behind the track, which was partly inspired by the success of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Merry Christmas (War Is Over).”

Holder said it was “the hardest song we’ve ever had to record” after bandmate Don Powell narrowly escaped death in a car crash in Wolverhampton earlier that year and he had to relearn how to play the drums.