TV chef Tim Bilton says he’s ‘grateful and emotional’ as he reveals his stage 4 cancer is now ‘dormant’ seven years after terminal diagnosis

A TV chef has emotionally announced his stage 4 cancer is ‘dormant’, seven years after he was given just 12 months to live. 

Tim Bilton, 54, who is best known for his appearance on Great British Menu and Channel 5’s On The Farm, spoke about his ‘cruel’ 13-year battle and the moment he received a call from his oncologist who told him his most recent scans are clear.

Tim was first diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer, in his eye in March 2013. 

The chef was at the height of his career, planning to open his second restaurant and appearing on shows including the BBC’s Great British Menu.

Supported by his wife Adele and their children Henry and Charlie, Tim fought it a second time when the melanoma returned in 2015, with treatment cruelly robbing him of his sense of taste.

After being in the clear for nearly three years, Tim felt confident he had beaten the disease – only to discover stage four cancer in his left leg and kidney in 2019. 

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Tim said he feels ‘grateful, scared and emotional’ as he shared a photo hugging his wife in their butchers after receiving the news. 

He wrote: ‘Not really sure how to put this into words or how I really feel to be honest.

‘But I have shared my cancer journey with you, the good, the bad and the ugly…..so I will share today with you.

‘It’s been 13 years of what I can only describe as utter b****y rubbish (could use worse words but don’t want to offend anyone).

‘My body has definitely been to hell and back and to be honest I’m not the man I was before my diagnosis.

‘I don’t look the same, I don’t talk the same, I can’t eat the things I used to love, my taste buds aren’t what they were, my jaw and knee are buggered…..I could go on.

‘But more importantly I’m still here and have been able to see my boys grow.

‘Cancer has been cruel yes 100% but I can honestly say it’s made me a better man.

‘Not sure why I was chosen to still be here today when in 2019 Adele was told to say her goodbyes to me. We have had some very very dark days but always smiled, laughed, cried and screamed through the storm.

‘Thank you to my amazing oncologist who has never given up on me even on the days when my body and mind had. So today we had an emotional phone call to say all my recent scans are clear and my stage 4 cancer is dormant.

’13 years on and I have been signed off….it’s over for now. Grateful, scared, emotional and not sure what to feel. Huge thank you to Adele for being by my side through it all and Adele’s brother Joe for being by her side.

‘My Boys, Henry & Charlie, thank you for keeping me going and making me proud every single day.

‘If you’re reading this there is still hope.

‘So hope really did carry us through…’.

Helen Skelton, who hosts On The Farm, led the congratulatory messages: ‘Wonderful news for a wonderful man’. 

Others said: ‘Best news ever. So happy for you all’ and ‘Fantastic news’.  

Tim started working in kitchens washing up when he was just 13, before spending two years working under celebrity chef Raymond Blanc, travelling across France and Italy honing his skills.

By the time his melanoma was first discovered, Tim was excelling professionally with two appearances on the BBC’s Great British Menu under his belt and a Michelin star – seen as the greatest fine dining accolade – within his grasp.

But 18 months after his initial diagnosis he found a hard lump on the left side of his face and his consultant at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital confirmed in August 2015 that the melanoma had returned.

The chef underwent an eight hour operation to remove the lump, half his saliva glands and some lymph nodes.

Tim, who had the left side of his face stapled up afterwards, said: ‘There’s no other way to describe it – I looked like the elephant man.’

Six gruelling weeks of intense radiotherapy followed, with him having to travel for two hours every day for treatment, while Adele tried to keep the restaurants ticking over.

‘It was like putting my head into a microwave. The first couple of weeks were okay but between week three and seven it was horrendous,’ Tim recalled.

‘My mouth was covered in ulcers. I couldn’t swallow. Speaking became impossible. Imagine how hard it is to eat with one ulcer and times that by a thousand. They were spreading down my throat.

‘I lost 100 per cent of my taste. Everything I tried had the taste and texture of cardboard.

‘It’s like being a carpenter, wood is your tool, and for me being a chef my mouth is my tool, so not being able to use it was absolutely devastating.’

Normally weighing 15 stone, within six weeks of surgery Tim’s weight had dropped to nine stone and, after losing his hair because of radiotherapy, he was unrecognisable.

Unable to eat and struggling to get out of bed some days, he relied on high calorie supplements from the hospital for nutrition, but became extremely dehydrated, so doctors threatened him with a feeding tube.

A further biopsy at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham confirmed the original melanoma had spread to the bones in his legs and later his kidney. At stage four, it was incurable.

Having sold his first restaurant in 2013 to concentrate on The Spiced Pear Tim then took the decision to sell up again in June 2016 to concentrate on his health.

Tim spent a few months recovering from the physical and emotional impact of the radiotherapy.