Tim Bilton: 'I was given 12 months to live seven years ago - now I have the all clear'

His only hope was immunotherapy, and even then it would not save him. But in an emotional post on social media, Tim revealed that the cancer had gone.

“The clinical trials they’ve done with the immunotherapy have shown that if the cancer hasn’t returned in five years after stopping the treatment, then it will not reappear.

"Which is crazy when you think that when I started it all those years ago it was regarded as nothing more than palliative care,” says Tim.

“He’s a walking miracle,” says his wife Adele. “It’s amazing, and we, and Tim’s oncologist, believe a lot of it has been mind over matter.”

For Tim, Adele and sons Henry and Charlie, it is now a period of adjustment as they come to terms with life free of cancer after living in its shadow since Tim was first diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer in 2013.

“I have to admit that we are all really coming to terms with it, which I know sounds strange,” says the 54-year-old.

“I feel a little bit guilty and upset if I dig down and think about it too much. All the other people I have met during my treatment and made so many friends who are sadly not here any more.”

“We’ve been so busy that we haven’t really processed the news,” says Adele, who runs the Butcher’s Larder in Kirkburton with Tim and eldest son Henry.

“I think keeping busy is how we have dealt with things since the beginning. Tim has always focused all his energy into work.

"But we really had no other choice. We had to keep our family going. We still had bills and a mortgage to pay.

“We really don’t know how to process this, as we don’t know how to live after being in flight or fight mode for so long.

"We’ve been married 20 years this August, and for most of our married life, Tim has been poorly.

"We went to York for a night, and we realised we just don’t know how to be normal and not poorly. We don’t know what the next stage of our life looks like.”

It is also a period of readjustment for their sons, especially Henry, who was old enough to remember when his dad was very unwell.

“We were always very honest with the boys at each step of the journey,” says Adele. “The only thing I didn’t allow was for the boys to go and visit him when he was in hospital having treatment.”

I first met Tim and Adele in 2011 when they had the Butchers Arms in Hepworth, and Tim had just been named Pub Restaurant Chef of the Year.

Even then he made no secret that he wanted to have a fine dining restaurant, having cut his teeth working for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons.

His dream came true in 2013 when he acquired the Spiced Pear; however, just 10 weeks before the doors were due to open, a bombshell was dropped on Tim’s carefully laid plans.

Adele had noticed a shadowy spot on the white of his left eye which turned out to be a rare form of melanoma.

Tim acknowledges that he should have consulted a doctor sooner but, like many men, he put it off. Three weeks after diagnosis, he had surgery to remove the tumour and was told to rest.

At that point rest wasn’t something in Tim Bilton’s vocabulary. After the operation on Wednesday, he was home by Thursday and then back to work on Friday.

The Spiced Pear opened on time with only a handful of family and friends knowing what he was going through.

“It didn’t occur to me to stop working. I just had to carry on.”

For the next two years Tim put the cancer behind him and ploughed all his energy into the restaurant and tea rooms, which were winning many accolades and even tipped for a Michelin star, while still undergoing regular check-ups.

But two years after his original diagnosis, it was during one of these check-ups that he was told the cancer had returned and had spread to his salivary glands, and he realised this time he would have to take time away from the kitchen and the business; eventually, they had to admit they would have to sell the business.

"It was Tim’s dream, and he was on the cusp of it all coming together for him, and I felt guilty that I couldn’t keep it going,” says Adele.

Tim underwent eight hours of surgery which affected his speech, saliva and – devastatingly – his sense of taste.

For six weeks Adele drove him every day for treatment at Weston Park Hospital, which took its toll on him physically and mentally.

Without Adele and the boys, he dreads to think what might have happened.

But no one keeps Tim Bilton down for long, and when he was well enough, he went to work for the Nicholson brothers at Cannon Hall Farm and, as a result, ended up a regular on Channel 5’s On the Farm presented by Helen Skelton.

However, in February 2019, a niggle in his knee, which he thought was an old footballing injury, turned out to be cancer which had spread and was incurable.

It was then he was given the devastating news that he could have 12 months to live, and he started on immunotherapy, which he was told would not cure him but could slow the progression of the disease.

Between the effects of the brutal treatment, the Biltons set about making memories with their two sons, helped by a fundraising campaign supported by celebrity chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Tom Kerridge.

He stopped the immunotherapy in 2021, and it took a lot of time for his body to recover from the treatment.

In fact, Tim still has, and might always have, serious side effects and is part of research at the Late Effects Clinic at Weston Park.

“Things like his teeth and his jaw are decaying due to all the radiotherapy,” says Adele.

Two years ago Tim decided he wanted his own business again and opened the Butcher’s Larder in Kirkburton, and like everything, he has thrown himself into making a massive success of the business with people travelling from all over the country to the small butcher’s shop in West Yorkshire.

“Tim thrives off having his own business, and while it may not be a Michelin-starred restaurant, people come from all over the country to this tiny shop where Tim makes everything,” says Adele.

“We wanted to give people that restaurant quality that they can replicate at home. I find it mad that people travel from the other side of Derby to a small butcher’s in Kirkburton,” says Tim.

He has talked openly about his diagnosis and treatment, raising awareness of Weston Park Hospital but also about cancer in men.

“I always said right from the start – and I know it’s a cliché – but if it just helps that one person, then I’m doing something right.

"One of the most humbling things is the number of men that come into the butcher's shop and open up to me just through what I’ve said on social media. I find it quite emotional just thinking about it.

"I have wives coming back into the shop saying it's the first time their husband or partner has opened up to anybody.

“I’ve never let myself think about the ‘what ifs’. There’s no point in worrying about something that hasn’t even happened; all that does is cause you more anxiety and stress.

"I try not to overprocess what has happened to me and why it has happened to me.

"I am just so grateful to everyone, and I am just happy to wake up in the morning, go to work and then go to watch my lads play sport.”