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Radio 4 cancer-stricken presenter Steve Hewlett marries with just weeks to live

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Sharnaz Shahid
Deputy Online Editor
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Radio 4 presenter Steve Hewlett has revealed he has married his partner, Rachel, just one hour after doctors told him his cancer treatment would stop and that he may have only weeks to live. The broadcaster, who was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus last year, was told that he had "weeks, possibly months" to live because his liver would not be able to handle any more medical treatment.

Speaking to Radio 4 PM's Eddie Mair on Monday, the radio personality opened up about his surprise wedding. He confessed: "The whole thing was organised in an hour. They got a Chelsea registrar, they got a Chelsea vicar hauled out of a dinner she was in with somebody. The nurses managed to produce bunches of flowers, a wedding cake, a couple bottles of Prosecco appeared from goodness knows where and then this ceremony begins."

steve© Photo: Rex

Radio 4's Steve Hewlett has revealed he may have "only weeks to live"

Steve, who has presented his radio show since 2008, had been receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He has been openly discussing his journey on the radio and in his Guardian blog called My cancer diary.

BBC Radio presenter reveals he has terminal cancer live on air

Discussing the upsetting diagnosis during the interview - which was recorded in his room at the Royal Marsden hospital in London - the father-of-three added: "I'd kind of accepted at some level or other that the outlook was not good for me in the medium to long term. Of course you have hope and you do your best and I certainly wasn’t going to give up. It took a little while for it to dawn on me what was really being said... This could be it. This could be curtains."