Turning down radiotherapy, Daniels ‘goes home to die’
MAGICIAN Paul Daniels has left hospital to spend his final days with his family after he was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour.
His son Martin said the entertainer, believing that ‘when it’s your time, i t’s your time’, declined radiotherapy after he was told it would not help him live longer.
Martin said every day spent with his father is now ‘a bonus’ for his family, who have chosen not to ask doctors how long the 77-year-old has left to live.
Daniels was diagnosed after he lost his balance and fell at his home on the banks of the River Thames in Berkshire in the south of England. Wife Debbie McGee, 57, took him to hospital where a scan showed the brain tumour.
Martin, 52, said: ‘Dad’s not going to get any better. There’s no treat- ment which can help him. Doctors haven’t said how many weeks or months he might have – and we haven’t asked.
‘He knows things are not in his hands now and we are living in the knowledge every day is a bonus. It is unbearably difficult.
‘He has said before, “When it’s your time, it’s your time” and that’s how he is trying to face up to things.’
In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Martin Daniels praised his stepmother Ms McGee for her ‘24/7’ care of Daniels, who is also being looked after by a nurse.
Martin said Ms McGee had been ‘absolutely amazing, absolutely astonishing’. He added: ‘Debbie is with him all the time – just as she has been for the past 30 years. She is doing everything for him. They are inseparable.’
Martin said seeing his father in hospital had been ‘ unbearably difficult’, adding: ‘I told him I loved him. And he told me he loved me too. We said we’d fight what lay ahead together. The whole family would. We cried, we laughed, we talked.’
Even in his hospital bed Daniels was ever the showman, a skill he honed while entertaining 20million viewers on his BBC programme Paul Daniels Magic Show, which aired from 1979 to 1994.
Martin said: ‘He went round the beds saying hello, making jokes. He sat at the nurses’ stations. He was doing a little ditty by the door to the ward saying, “roll up, roll up, visiting time is over folks”.
‘But that’s Dad. He is a natural showman, a natural entertainer and even at a time like that he wanted to try and make others happy. I think that’s been the secret why he was such a star on TV and stage.’
Daniels and Ms McGee have performed together since 1979
and have been married for 26 years, touring the world as one of its most established magician-and-assistant acts.
She, along with Martin and brothers Paul, 55, and Gary, 46, who were all born to the magician’s first wife Jacqueline Skipworth, have barely left his side in the past fortnight.
Daniels had lost his balance several times at home before Ms McGee took him to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
The entertainer, who had been feeling more tired than usual, had already undergone several blood tests. It was initially thought he had suffered a minor stroke.
Martin said the discovery of the tumour was ‘devastating for all of us’. He added: ‘The doctors said the tumour was growing rapidly and could not be cured.’
Also a magician, Martin cut short a gig on a cruise ship touring Argentina and Brazil to travel to his father’s bedside. Supportive words from his brother Gary enabled him to make it through a last performance on board.
After receiving the terminal diagnosis, Daniels decided to return to his home in Berkshire with his family. He spends some of his days dozing in bed, from where he can watch boats passing on the river and ducks and swans i n the garden.
The magician has been buoyed by the amount of support from well-wishers and fans across the world.
Martin said: ‘We are very grateful and all of us are genuinely touched. It is giving us tremendous strength at what is a very difficult time.
‘We are together as a family. It is all we can do. We are trying to stay strong for Dad and strong for each other. It’s the only way we can be.’
Daniels set his heart on becoming a magician when he was just 11 and developed his catchphrase ‘You’ll like this. Not a lot… but you’ll like it’ while performing on the club circuit.
He came second on TV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1970 and landed a regular spot on the ITV variety show The Wheeltappers And Shunters Social Club.
But his big break came in 1979 when he launched The Paul Daniels Magic Show on BBC1.
The show was an instant hit and Daniels became one of the bestpaid entertainers on television. The BBC controversially axed the show in 1994.
He has continued to perform his magic show as well as making regular appearances on TV.
Daniels has spoken openly about death before, saying it doesn’t worry him as it’s ‘just like going to sleep’.
‘Devastating for all of us’