Clive James “getting near the end”

Veteran Australian broadcaster Clive James has told BBC radio he is “getting near the end”, two years after being diagnosed with cancer.

The always-erudite James was diagnosed with leukaemia, kidney failure and lung disease in 2010.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Meeting Myself Coming Back: “I’m getting near the end. I don’t want to cast a gloom, an air of doom, over the programme but I’m a man who is approaching his terminus.”

In the show, to be broadcast on Saturday, James said he has “been really ill for two-and-a-half years” and “almost died four times in that period”.

However, following the release of material from the Radio 4 programme, James’s spokeswoman said the interview had “sounded much less doom-laden than it does when transcribed”.

“Clive is in fact in reasonable shape and is looking forward to years of working, writing his books and his column for the [Daily] Telegraph,” she added.

James was also recently in the headlines following a story on A Current Affair that detailed a secret affair, which had led to the end of his marriage.

On BBC he added, “I’ve been so sick since January 2010, especially my lung disease, that I’m not allowed to fly. You couldn’t get enough oxygen aboard a plane for me to get me to Sydney.”

Source: The Guardian