Singer Noddy Holder says doctors are still “keeping a check on me” after being given months to live five years ago.
The former Slade frontman, famous for the line “it’s Christmas” in the band’s 1973 festive hit Merry Xmas Everybody, told Sky News he had “lasted the course”.
In an interview with Kay Burley, the 78-year-old said: “I did have oesophageal cancer and that was five years ago and, at the moment, they’re still keeping a check on me.
“I’m on a level playing field at the moment after at the time being diagnosed with six months to live.
“So I’ve lasted the course, as it were.”
His wife Suzan explained how Christmas Day begins with an “unusual alarm clock” in the Holder household.
She said: “When he shouts ‘It’s Christmas!’ in your ear to wake you up on Christmas morning, it’s very loud.
“It is a very unusual alarm clock, but it works.”
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The couple were talking to Sky News about hospice care and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, where Mr Holder was treated.
The musician, who has also enjoyed a career in acting, became famous for a number of hits with Slade in the 1970s and 80s before leaving the band in 1992.
