Trevor Sorbie, a regular on This Morning, has revealed he has ‘weeks to live’ after declining chemotherapy treatment that ‘might have given him another month’.
The 76-year-old celebrity hairdresser, who last month announced his terminal bowel cancer diagnosis which has since spread to his liver, told the Times: “Chemo might give me another month but I can’t face any more of that poison. When I asked a nurse if I’d still be here at Christmas, she said, ‘We don’t know, Trevor’.”
He added: “That annoyed me. I’ve got cancer in my body, but not in here. My brain is my engine and I’ll go when I’m ready.”
Mr Sorbie, who has styled the likes of the Queen and Helen Mirren, also shared that he hadn’t slept in three days due to steroids causing “mad insomnia”.
His illustrious career includes styling Adam Ant, Bryan Ferry, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, the Beach Boys, Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones, Robbie Williams, and Lorraine Kelly. Trevor first spoke about his diagnosis after experiencing severe bleeding, which led him to seek medical help, reports the Mirror.
He recalled: “I lost a lot of blood one night and was unusually disturbed so went to hospital. They told me I had bowel cancer and I had a little panic attack. I looked at Carole [his wife] and she looked at me, we were both speechless, didn’t know what to say. So I went and had a big gin and tonic.”
In 2009, he decided to leave salon work behind and concentrate on his charity, My New Hair, which was inspired by his experience of cutting a wig for his sister-in-law, Jackie, who was undergoing chemotherapy for bone cancer.
He has since trained thousands of hairdressers not only in wig-cutting techniques, but also in how to communicate with individuals nearing the end of their lives.
Trevor expressed his gratitude towards his wife Carole, describing her as “Florence Nightingale and Mother Teresa rolled into one”. It was Carole who called an ambulance in 2019 when he started bleeding heavily.
He admitted that he hadn’t noticed any symptoms prior to this, apart from diarrhoea and constipation which he had been experiencing for several months and had dismissed. Surgery was performed to remove a tumour from his bowel, and he was informed there was a five per cent chance of it returning – sadly, it did.
Speaking about his future, he said: “I want to live every day enjoying what I’ve got and making the most of it.”
Sorbie plans to die at home, though not just yet, and has no desire for a funeral. “Too upsetting. When the time comes my ashes will be interred with Carole’s and our little dog.”
He remains defiant, insisting: “But I’m going to defy medical science. If the cancer reaches my brain, then I’ll accept it, but until then, I’m in charge, and I’m going on my terms.”
Last month, while appearing on This Morning, he shared: “I had a nurse come round the other day to assess me and as I asked ‘Will I make Christmas? ‘ She said ‘I don’t know Trevor’. I said ‘I damn well will. The brain rules the body. The heart plays a big part as well but that is the engine. Because I’ve got a charity I’ve helped many women through cancer, cutting wigs for them. People handle it in different ways.”
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