Radio star Ali Clarke has revealed she will be returning to work less than a month after announcing a heartbreaking breast cancer diagnosis on live TV.
The Adelaide radio presenter, who co-hosts Max & Ali in the Morning with Max Burford, underwent a mastectomy two weeks ago.
During Tuesday’s show, Ali made a surprise return to discuss his recovery on air before revealing he will return to work Wednesday morning.
—So, what do you think now that you’re starting to go crazy? Do you feel like going back to work? —Max asked.
“Tomorrow morning at 6am I’ll be back on the air,” Ali revealed, to Max’s delight.
Hayley Pearson, who had replaced Ali, was also quite happy with the news.
“Thank God, because I’m busy,” Hayley joked.
Ali admitted she was excited to get back to work because she was running out of things to do in her free time.
Adelaide radio presenter Ali Clarke has revealed she will be returning to work less than a month after announcing a heartbreaking breast cancer diagnosis on live TV.
“I’m sick of this,” Ali protested. “The Olympics are over, I’ve finished watching Vikings on Netflix, but I haven’t even finished a quarter leopard print on my cross-stitch.”
“The Olympics were epic for me. I ended up raising my hand to participate in our WhatsApp Olympic contest,” she added.
‘We’ve been in a WhatsApp trivia group since Tokyo, so I took it upon myself to write down some of the most obscure questions I could because I’ve been the only person watching it all live.’
In addition to honing her trivia skills, Ali added that one of the most important lessons she learned throughout her ordeal was how each person’s recovery was quite unique.
“Tomorrow morning at 6am I’ll be back on air,” Ali revealed, much to the delight of co-host Max Burford.
“It’s funny, I spoke to a friend of mine who had a mastectomy last year. She’s younger than me, she’s a former Olympian, she’s an amazing human being. I called her and asked, ‘What’s in store for me? What’s the recovery like?’ She just said she walked up Mount Lofty after two weeks,” Ali said, referring to the highest point in South Australia’s Mount Lofty Southern Range.
Ali, who is married to Adelaide’s AFL Women’s head coach Matthew Clarke, added that the admission was initially daunting.
“I looked at Matt and said, ‘Number one, no way and number two, I can’t do that right now,'” she laughed.
“That’s something I’ve worked on throughout this: No matter what you’re going through, whether it’s chronic pain, surgery, recovering from a baby, becoming a parent for the first time, we really have to let it go and understand that it’s really individual to each person,” she added.
Ali added that one of the most important lessons she had learned throughout her ordeal was that each person’s journey was quite unique.
Ali revealed his diagnosis on air late last month, telling listeners he would be taking a break from the show to undergo treatment.
“I thought it (the cancer) was very small and controllable, but I found a lot of small cancers. That means I’m having a pretty big surgery later this week and I’ll have to take some time off to recover, as you can imagine,” she told listeners.
Following his surgery, Ali called into the show to give an update on his recovery and admitted that he was doing well.
Ali said the surgery took several hours and he will have to wait for the results to see if further treatment is necessary.
Hayley then asked, “Have you been able to take a look at it yet? Or was it already wrapped up?”
“We were all involved but… it wasn’t as confrontational as I think I had in mind,” Ali responded.
‘My biggest relief was when the kids came in and I asked them if they wanted to take a look and they all said yes, and they didn’t bat an eye.’
Ali revealed her diagnosis on air late last month, telling listeners she would be taking a break from the show to undergo treatment. Ali is pictured with her husband Matthew Clarke.
