Lauren Laverne reveals one thing that helped her cope during cancer battle
Broadcaster Lauren Laverne has revealed gardening helped get her through her battle with cancer - comparing being outdoors to "therapy".
Lauren Laverne has credited gardening with helping her through her battle with cancer.
The 47-year-old BBC presenter revealed she had been diagnosed with a form of the disease back in 2024 before being given the all-clear and she later confirmed she was also dealing with a rare blood and bone marrow disorder called smouldering myeloma - now Lauren has explained getting outside into her backyard has been a form of "therapy" for her during the tough times over the last few years.
During an appearance on the Outsiding with Adam Frost and Caitlin Moran podcast, Lauren said: "My garden has been massive therapy for me. I mean, I’ve had a tricky time over the last few years. And so I’ve spent more and more and more time outside. I think the older I've got, the more I've needed that time outdoors.
"I mean, so in, oh God, the past eight years. So, you know, lost my mam and dad, they both died. And then, you know, I got cancer and been through lots of different health challenges with like recovery and things like that.
"It’s been really important to have the garden, I’ve spent more and more time out there."
Lauren went on to reveal she spent a month in hospital during her cancer battle and she recalled gazing out of the window and longing to be outside.
She said: "'I mean I was in hospital when I had cancer for a month. And it was this time of year so I was like looking out onto this heatwave, I was right in this big hospital in London looking out into a big park and I just, I couldn't feel it.
"I just remember thinking - God you know I've been the same temperature for like weeks and weeks and weeks and the artificial light and everything it's very strange.
"And so I think when I got home I just wanted to be outside. And also like say if you’re going through something really difficult, maybe you’ve had a
diagnosis or, you know, you’ve lost someone or something like that and then you go to a party, you feel like you’re really out of place.
"Or if you go to work, like, you’re kind of on a different time zone to everybody there so you sort of feel like you don’t fit, but the funny thing about being outdoors you can feel however you want to feel and it’s alright."
Lauren previously opened up about being diagnosed with smouldering myeloma - an early form of the blood cancer myeloma in which abnormal cells can be detected in the bone marrow and abnormal protein is found in the blood and/or urine.
She stressed her condition is unrelated to either her previous cancer diagnosis and her individual risk of developing blood cancer is “pretty low”.
In a post online, she explained: "Hi. So – personal news. I’m quite a private person by nature but am sharing this as one of the many things I’ve learned after going through health challenges in recent years is that talking about this stuff helps people.
"I’ve been diagnosed with something called smouldering myeloma. (yes that is a weird name and no I’ve never heard of it either.)
"It’s an asymptomatic blood and bone marrow disorder that in some people can develop into blood cancer.
"Thankfully for me the risk of this happening in my case is pretty low."
She continued: “At the moment I feel OK and don’t need treatment. Most people my age who have it have no idea – it tends to be cancer survivors like me who are diagnosed early as we’re so carefully monitored.
"It has nothing to do with my previous illness or my recent surgery, it’s just one of those things. It is a chronic condition – no cure yet – and it does mean my immune system is a bit compromised, so I will need to take good care of myself and I will be carefully monitored with blood tests, MRIs and bone marrow biopsies (which I have recently discovered are even less fun than they sound.)"
