This Morning star with 'weeks to live' says he's turned down treatment
The ‘hairdresser to the stars' who 'might not make Christmas' said chemotherapy could give him another month but 'I can’t face any more of that poison'
This Morning regular Trevor Sorbie has ‘weeks to live’ after he turned down chemotherapy treatment which "might have given him another month", he has said. The ‘hairdresser to the stars’, 76, last month said he has terminal bowel cancer, which has now spread to his liver.
In an interview with the Times, he said chemo might give him another month “but I can’t face any more of that poison. When I asked a nurse if I’d still be here at Christmas, she said, ‘We don’t know, Trevor’. And that annoyed me. I’ve got cancer in my body, but not in here. My brain is my engine and I’ll go when I’m ready”.
Mr Sorbie, who has styled the hair of celebrities such as the Queen and Helen Mirren, said in the interview that he hadn’t slept in three days partly due to steroids, which, as well as reducing pain and inflammation, cause “mad insomnia”.
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He cut the hair of Adam Ant, Bryan Ferry, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, the Beach Boys, Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones and Robbie Williams, not to mention Lorraine Kelly.
Trevor first spoke about his diagnosis after experiencing severe bleeding, prompting him to visit the doctor. He recounted: “I lost a lot of blood one night and was unusually disturbed so went to hospital. They told me I had bowel cancer and I had a little panic attack. I looked at Carole [his wife] and she looked at me, we were both speechless, didn’t know what to say. So I went and had a big gin and tonic.”
In 2009, he gave up salon work to focus on his charity, My New Hair, which he set up after cutting a wig for his sister-in-law, Jackie, who was having chemotherapy for bone cancer. He has taught thousands of hairdressers not only to cut wigs, but how to communicate with people who are at the end of their lives.
Trevor paid tribute to his wife Carole, who has been “Florence Nightingale and Mother Teresa rolled into one”. It was Carole who called an ambulance one night in 2019 after he began bleeding heavily. He said he didn’t have symptoms before, apart from diarrhoea and constipation he had experienced for a few months, which he had ignored.
Surgery removed a tumour from his bowel - and he was told there was a five per cent chance of it coming back. Unfortunately, it did. Speaking about his hopes he said: “I want to live every day enjoying what I’ve got and making the most of it."
Sorbie intends to die at home, though not quite yet, and does not want a funeral. “Too upsetting. When the time comes, my ashes will be interred with Carole’s and our little dog."
"But I’m going to defy medical science,” he insists. “If the cancer reaches my brain, then I’ll accept it, but until then, I’m in charge, and I’m going on my terms.”
Speaking on This Morning last month, he said: “I had a nurse come round the other day to assess me and as I asked ‘Will I make Christmas?’ She said ‘I don’t know Trevor’. I said ‘I damn well will. The brain rules the body. The heart plays a big part as well but that is the engine. Because I’ve got a charity I’ve helped many women through cancer, cutting wigs for them. People handle it in different ways.”
Symptoms of Bowel Cancer, according to the HSE
Symptoms of bowel cancer may include:
- changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you
- needing to poo more or less often than usual for you
- blood in your poo, which may look red or black
- bleeding from your bottom
- tummy pain
- feeling a lump anywhere in your tummy
- bloating
- if you are losing weight for no reason
- feeling very tired for no reason
- breathlessness
You may have 1 or more symptoms.
For more information click here.
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