Five years after Marr’s devastating stroke, he battles kidney tumour

ANDREW Marr will have surgery to remove a malignant tumour from his kidney this week.

His health ordeal comes five years after he suffered a devastating stroke which left him partially paralysed.

The 58-year-old journalist will step down from hosting his BBC1 Sunday politics programme, The Andrew Marr Show, while he recuperates.

He made the news public yesterday, signing off from his show by saying: ‘I’m going to be away for a couple of weeks.

‘I’m having a small hospital operation and I will be back as soon as I possibly can, so be kind please to whoever is sitting in this chair next week.’

Both the BBC and Marr’s agent have said he is expected to make a full recovery.

Kidney cancer is a common form of the disease and normally affects those over 60.

Symptoms include blood in urine, lower back pain, and a lump on the side of the body.

The prognosis is good if the cancer is diagnosed early.

Marr was born in Glasgow and went to the High School of Dundee and Loretto School in Musselburgh, East Lothian, before studying at Cambridge.

He started his journalism career at The Scotsman in Edinburgh.

In January 2013, he had a massive stroke after pushing himself to exhaustion on a rowing machine. An operation to clear the blockage caused a more severe bleed on the brain, and he almost died twice.

‘I was out of it, I don’t remember anything about it,’ he said last year. He said doctors told his wife and three children they were sorry but he was not going to ‘make it’. He added that they later told them: ‘Good news and bad news: we think he might make it but if he does he will basically be unable to speak and will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.’

But Marr regained consciousness days later and, after months of physiotherapy, was able to relearn how to walk. It was thought his busy work schedule had contributed to his health problems. The BBC presenter had juggled writing a book, travelling the world for a documentary and hosting both The Andrew Marr Show and Radio 4’s Start the Week in the two years before his stroke.

Earlier this year Marr told Theresa May his stroke might have killed him if it had happened during the NHS winter crisis. In a terse interview with the Prime Minister, he referred to a case of an elderly woman from Essex who was forced to wait five hours to be seen after having a stroke.

He said: ‘If I’d have been waiting for five hours before I’d seen a doctor after my stroke I would not be here talking to you.’

‘I will be back as soon as I can’