Personal touchdown for Mark Holden

Former Australian Idol judge Mark Holden has been given the all-clear of cancer, following a diagnosis in early 2010.

“I wouldn’t be dead for quids,” Holden, now a barrister, told the Sunday Herald Sun. “I love life. I love walking down the street and having a coffee, playing with the dog, banging it out with the Dandenong magistrate and just being alive.”

Holden, 56, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in February 2010 and has since undergone 16 months of radiation.

Following a six-hour operation to remove a tumour over a year ago, he was told that while the cancer hadn’t spread he didn’t yet have a clean bill of health.  That was twelve month ago.

“I remember waking up one day after a treatment with a deep terror that I could die tomorrow. It took me a long time to get over that. We all keep death at bay and in that moment I experienced what it would be like.”

Holden is an ambassador for men’s cancer campaign Blue September.