Princess Diana's former butler and friend Paul Burrell has opened up about his diagnosis with prostate cancer. Photo / @lorraine
Paul Burrell has cancer.
The 64-year-old former butler - who used to work for, and was a confidante of, the late Princess Diana - is worried he won’t be alive at the end of the year after being diagnosed with prostate cancer last summer.
He said: “I’m tired, I’m on hormone therapy, it’s robbing me of my testosterone so my beard isn’t growing as it should, I’m tired, and I’m getting hot flushes.
“I’m on an emotional educational rollercoaster and not knowing where I’m going to be.
“Thinking ‘Am I going to be here next year [for Christmas]?’... I told my boys and they said ‘Dad, we need to spend more time with you’.”
Burrell explained he had been for a medical check last year and underwent a “full MOT”, with a PSA test - which can detect prostate cancer - showing “fairly unusual” levels. It prompted his doctor to send him for an MRI scan, which showed a shadow on his prostate.
While the former I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant feels “so tired”, he feels fortunate it was caught early and wants to raise awareness of the disease.
Speaking on UK TV show Lorraine, he said: “At the same time you realise that there are thousands of men out there like me who have no symptoms and don’t know they have it.
“I was really lucky they caught it early. I don’t think men are particularly good about going to the doctors - they need nudging.”
Burrell will undergo surgery next month to have his prostate gland removed.
He said: “’My father days are over. I don’t want any more children, I’ve got two wonderful boys, that’s fine.
“But not everything finishes because you lose your prostate. It can continue to be as good as it ever was in the bedroom.
“You can still have a good sex life but you have to talk about it. Talk about it, don’t hide it.”
‘You have to teach your brain to associate bed with sleep and sex. And nothing else.’