"JOE LONGTHORNE: I PRAY AFTER MY CANCER OPERATION I CAN STILL SING AND MARRY MY JAMES"

"SINGING LEGEND BATTLED LEUKAEMIA FOR 20 YEARS BEFORE HE HAD A LIFE-SAVING BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANT IN 2006"

Joe Longthorne is reluctant to face his fear, but knows he must. In just two weeks he will have an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from the right side of his throat. And he is terrified he may never be able to sing again. Joe, who battled leukaemia for 20 years before he had a life-saving bone-marrow transplant in 2006, is facing up to his latest fight with trademark good humour and the support of his partner James Moran.

At home in Blackpool he says: “It may seem a bit selfish but I want to keep my singing voice. We are just going to have to get it done and see what happens afterwards because my doctor wants to get it out as quick as he can. We don’t know where it has spread to and what else will have to go. It is a big fear for me. Singing is my life. Performing has been my life since I was a nipper. I can communicate when I am on stage. It is all I have ever known. If my voice went that would be extremely depressing, I don’t know what I’d do,” he says sadly, before turning it into a joke. “I will have to take up juggling!”

Joe, now 59, who became a much-loved singer and impressionist after he won the TV talent show Search for a Star in 1981, first realised something was wrong when he noticed a rough patch of skin in the right side of his mouth. “A few months ago I had a rough feeling inside my jaw,” he says. “At first I thought I had bitten it accidentally. I left it for a while but then I went to see a GP. I said I thought it was a blister but she said there is something down there that doesn’t look right. I was getting all sorts of pains and started taking painkillers. I went for two scans and my surgeon called me back in and I knew what he was going to say. He said it’s cancer and whatever it is it has to come out now. My heart sank. But I will fight it. I have had cancer three or four times so I had an idea it might be. You just have to keep going. Whatever happens this operation has to go ahead.”

Because Joe was booked to do 74 shows this year, thousands of programmes have already been printed and are now stacked in his garage. He and James, his partner and manager of 18 years, don’t know what the future holds. The couple have talked about marriage and this latest diagnosis has set them both thinking about it again. James, 37, said: “It’s at times like this you think of it even more but we are taking things one day at a time. It is something we will definitely look at. When I heard the cancer was back I thought, Here we go again. But my attitude is that we beat it once we can do it again. It’s nothing to get scared about. The main thing is we do it together, simple as that.”

The son of travellers, Joe was born in Hull and he soon discovered his own talent for performing. At the age of six he won a toy car in his first talent show. By 14 he landed a part on Yorkshire Television’s Junior Showtime. After leaving school he made singing and impressions his career, building up a loyal fan base in the northern clubs. Then he entered Search for a Star and his Shirley Bassey impression helped him to victory. His success landed him his own ITV series and platinum-selling records followed.

He first met James in 1997 at a showbusiness party in Blackpool. Joe was deep in conversation with comedian Roy “Chubby” Brown when he spotted the young son of a local antique dealer across the room. Looking tanned and wearing a pink shirt and blue trousers, Joe is speaking for the first time about James. He tells me: “He is a wonderful person but we are complete opposites. When I saw him at the party I was single and hadn’t had a relationship for quite a while so I was straight in there. “I thought he might go off for a dance with his wife or girlfriend but he didn’t. He was off to see a musical that weekend but he decided not to – he cancelled and saw me instead. “He doesn’t really care for showbiz. He was a very good golf player and had a chance to turn pro. I said I’d support him 100% but I offered him a job as my manager and he wanted to do that. We have thought about marriage... I would love to marry James.”

Joe is taking inspiration from brave Stephen Sutton, 19, who raised more than £4million for the Teenage Cancer Trust before his death earlier this month. His spirit and energy moved people around the world, including Joe, who says: “Nineteen years old and cancer took him – what a short life. "When it’s young ’uns it is very hard. But to be so young and so brave is a lesson to all of us. He is a real inspiration. “Cancer is like you are in a very exclusive club that nobody wants to be in. But young Stephen – what a brave man to go through that in such a way.
“With cancer it is the family that go through just as much worry as the patient. That’s sometimes the tragic thing – that cancer infects everyone. I try to laugh it off and sing it off. I just have to keep on going.”

Some might say that Joe, with all his success, has been dogged by ill fortune. He was diagnosed with chronic lymphatic leukaemia in 1982 and for 20 years he fought it until it developed into full blown leukaemia. A bone-marrow transplant in 2006 was a success and led to remission. At the height of his fame in the mid-90s, Joe was using Class A drugs which pushed him to physical and mental collapse. He says: “I have had two nervous breakdowns. When I first got cancer I was on a lot of drugs and I got really depressed. I had a breakdown and went into High Wycombe hospital.

“I did take a few drugs in the early days. I was a bit of a lad. I have had LSD and cocaine. I have had the full menu except for heroin. I was using drugs before and during my fame. I had a nervous breakdown as everything became too much. It was just a social thing but I do feel you end up depressed on that s***.”

Then in 2011, while being driven back from a gig with James, their driver blacked out and they crashed at 100mph into a roundabout. The car was just a twisted mass of metal but all three somehow survived. Joe walked away from the wreck before collapsing and going into a coma, while James suffered a shattered ankle.
Joe says: “We saw what was happening. I tried to stop the car or pull on the brake. I was awake when it happened. I thought, ‘Not again, here we go again.’ When we took off I just held on. I suffered neck injuries, a broken nose and whiplash. James came off the worst though. It’s a miracle he didn’t die – the car was flattened.”
James adds: “The driver blacked out. He had a medical condition. It was just a million-to-one shot. When he had the blackout he put his foot on the accelerator so we knew something was wrong. We flipped over three times down the road, the length of a football pitch. We all had seat-belts on thankfully.”

It’s apparent that the couple have been through a great deal in the last two decades – including a bright spot when Joe was awarded an MBE for services to charity in 2012. Now as they wait for the date of the operation they will face the new challenge together. Joe said: “I woke up this morning feeling positive. Let’s face it. I’ll be lucky to live but if my voice does go I will just have to find something else to do, like play golf with James. “It would be devastating but there are other things to do. And I will just have to find them.

This article from The Mirror by Alun Palmer Published 18 June 2014.