BBC political editor Nick Robinson reveals  ‘best’ cancer advice he received from unexpected source at No 10 - video Dailymotion

BBC political editor on 'best' cancer advice he received from unexpected source at No 10 Source: BBC Radio 4 Today

Transcript

00:00 Did it change you, carpe diem and all that, seize the day?

00:03 I was having chemotherapy, everybody said you should just be off work,

00:06 because it does make you feel pretty terrible actually, and very tired as well.

00:11 But I thought, sod this, I want to be at work.

00:13 And I was asked to go and see the Prime Minister for a chat, David Cameron as it was then,

00:18 because as a political editor that's what you do a couple of times a year, have a background chat.

00:23 And I was greeted at the door by his top official,

00:28 a lovely man called Chris Martin, sadly no longer with us, his Principal Private Secretary,

00:32 who said, look I'm sorry, we're going to have to put back the meeting.

00:36 So I said, he's the Prime Minister, you know, no problem.

00:38 He said, no, no, no, I asked to put back the meeting.

00:41 So I said, why Chris?

00:44 I want to talk to you about cancer, he said, because he had it.

00:47 And he took me into the garden on a beautiful day in Downing Street and said,

00:51 I'm just going to guess, he said, but I think everybody thinks you're mad

00:57 to work through cancer and work through chemotherapy.

01:00 I said, how do you know?

01:02 He said, because that's what they said of me.

01:04 And he was at the Prime Minister's side, doing that job as an official,

01:09 with a much more serious condition than I had.

01:13 And he said, that's what works for you.

01:15 Tragically, Chris, no longer with us.

01:18 But he was right.

01:20 And you have to work out what is right.

01:23 For some people, it's to curl up in a ball and disappear.

01:25 For others, it's just to get on.

01:27 And that's what worked for me.

01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]