For Gyles Brandreth, the word cancer once belonged to a different chapter of life — something associated with ageing, bad luck, and middle age.
Then, in an instant, everything he thought he understood was torn apart.
The much-loved broadcaster, now 77, has opened up about the moment his family’s world was turned upside down after his baby grandson Kitt was diagnosed with cancer at just 15 months old — a revelation he describes as a profound “shock to the system”.
A discovery that changed everything
In April 2017, what began as a routine nappy change for Kitt’s parents — Brandreth’s daughter Saethryd Brandreth and her husband Mark Brandreth — quickly became every parent’s worst nightmare.
They noticed a tiny, pea-sized lump near their son’s stomach. At first, a GP reassured them it was likely nothing serious — possibly a cyst or a hernia.
Further tests, however, revealed a devastating truth.
Kitt had rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive soft-tissue cancer. Fewer than 60 children are diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year.
“I thought of cancer as something that happens to unlucky middle-aged people,” Brandreth admitted.
“You think of breast cancer or prostate cancer. You don’t think of children. Well — we didn’t.”
The road no family expects to walk
Kitt was referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he began intensive treatment. Chemotherapy caused him to lose his hair and left him requiring multiple blood and platelet transfusions.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kitt later developed a serious bacterial infection that affected both his heart and liver. During treatment, he also suffered veno-occlusive disease — a rare, life-threatening complication in which tiny veins in the liver become blocked, risking organ failure.
The family, Brandreth said, had not realised just how long, frightening and emotionally draining the journey would be.
“It’s a case of holding your breath,” he reflected. “Being patient. And trusting the team.”
Finding reassurance in the darkest moments
Despite the fear, there was one moment of reassurance that stayed with him.
“The instant we heard he was going to Great Ormond Street,” Brandreth said, “we felt calmer. There’s a sense that whatever is needed will be available.”
He paid tribute to the hospital’s staff at every level — from consultants to nurses and support teams — describing them as “matchless”.
“You never feel alone,” he said. “Everyone is there for you. It’s incredibly moving.”
“I was Grandpa” — and that mattered
While Kitt’s parents focused entirely on treatment schedules and medical decisions, Brandreth saw his own role differently.
“I was Grandpa,” he said simply.
“Providing a sense of normality.”
That meant jigsaws on the floor, building things only to knock them down again, and sharing funny poems — fragments of ordinary childhood joy during an extraordinary crisis.
He also praised GOSH for never losing sight of something vital.
“They remember that children are still children,” he said, highlighting the hospital’s playrooms and emotional wellbeing teams.
Remission — but never forgotten
Kitt was given the all-clear in November 2017 and rang the end-of-treatment bell — a moment the family will never forget.
Now 10 years old, he lives abroad with his parents and older brother Rory Brandreth, and has been in remission for eight years. He continues to attend annual check-ups at GOSH.
Looking back, Brandreth admits the experience also opened his eyes to the realities of medical progress.
“You read about exciting breakthroughs,” he said. “But when you talk to doctors, you realise many aren’t available yet.”
While advances like CAR T-cell therapy, pioneered at GOSH, have transformed outcomes for some children, many childhood cancers are still treated with drugs developed decades ago.
Now, Brandreth is lending his voice to GOSH Charity, supporting its campaign to build a new, world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre ahead of World Cancer Day.
His message is clear: children deserve kinder, more effective treatments — and sustained investment to make them possible.
For Brandreth, the ordeal reshaped everything he thought he knew about illness, resilience and childhood.
It began with a lump no one expected.
It became a fight no family is ever prepared for.
And it ended with a lesson he says he will carry for the rest of his life.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
