Dame Julie Walters, 69, reveals she had stage three bowel cancer


Dame Julie Walters, 69, reveals she had stage three bowel cancer – but now has the all-clear after surgery and chemotherapy 18 months later

Dame Julie Walters revealed she had stage three bowel cancer – but has now been given the all clear following chemotherapy. 

The Mamma Mia star said she thought doctors must have been mistaken when she first heard the news.

She told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire she was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer just 18 months ago after two primary tumours were discovered in her large intestine. 

Dame Julie Walters revealed she had stage three bowel cancer - but has now been given the all clear following chemotherapy

Dame Julie Walters revealed she had stage three bowel cancer – but has now been given the all clear following chemotherapy

Dame Julie, 69, said she had visited the doctor with indigestion and ‘slight discomfort’ a year earlier but later came back suffering with stomach pain, heartburn and vomiting. 

She underwent a CT scan after being referred to a gastric surgeon and, while she was on set filming The Secret Garden, received a phone call asking her to see the specialist who told her it might be cancer.   

‘I was still thinking, ‘That’s ridiculous, he must have made a mistake’. I couldn’t believe it,’ Dame Julie said.

She remembers telling her husband Grant Roffey.

‘I’ll never forget his face. Tears came into his eyes,’ Dame Julie said.