Hairdresser Trevor Sorbie: Work was ‘medicine’ during terminal cancer treatment
The 75-year-old was first diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago before it spread to his liver.
Celebrity hairdresser Trevor Sorbie has said he continued to work through his terminal cancer treatment as it was his “medicine”.
The 75-year-old, who gained fame with the creation of the wedge cut, has revealed he has weeks to live after his bowel cancer has spread to his liver.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning on Wednesday, with his wife Carole, they revealed he was told in June that he had “maybe six” months to live.
She said: “So, both (of us) were in a bit of denial at that point. And then you had the last scan, which was September, and that’s when you realise no treatment is going to work.”
Sorbie, who has a popular eponymous haircare brand, revealed that he got his initial diagnosis of bowel cancer after going to the hospital when he lost a lot of blood one night.
He said he and Carole were left “speechless” at the news and it prompted him to have a “little panic attack” in his office at the time.
The award-winning Scottish stylist explained the cancer has now spread to his liver and he has undergone six-and-a-half hour operations long to remove sections of it, but that his surgeon will no longer operate as it’s too close to a major blood vessel.
Despite the terminal diagnosis, he is remaining positive and hopes to make it to Christmas.
“I never wake up thinking, ‘Oh, poor me. I’ve got cancer I feel sorry for myself’,” he said.
“I go to work, well up until two weeks ago, two days a week, and I go there because that’s my medicine.
“That is my life – 60 years.
“I’ve worked passionately to achieve beyond my wildest dreams, actually, and when I go in it’s my staff, I’ve had them for up to 30 years, they’re family. I’m just one of the team.”
Sorbie previously set up the charity, My New Hair, which provides “public advice and support a national network of independent salons and professionals who provide a wig styling service for people suffering from cancer and medical hair loss”.
He said through his experience with the charity he has seen how people handle cancer in different ways and believes there is no right or wrong way.
His approach is to believe “the mind is stronger than any other function” and that fuels his belief that he can “fight this”.
“Doctors have even said, ‘Trevor, you’re breaking medical science, you shouldn’t be here right now’,” he recalled.
“I’m like, ‘I ain’t going nowhere. I’m squeezing it in’.”
The hairdresser said his focus at the moment is spending quality time with his wife and loved ones.
Wife Carole said she finds it to be “totally overwhelming most days” but that Sorbie has given her “strength”.
She added: “He’s guiding me through a good death … living a good life, dying a good death. And up until then, I hadn’t thought about that.
“But what we do every day now, we’re thankful for the day that we have, that we wake up together, and it’s all the simple things.”
Sorbie, who was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, opened his first salon in 1979 and was made an MBE in 2004.
He is also a four-time British Hairdresser of the Year winner who helped transform the world of hairdressing through trend-setting styles like the scrunch and the wolf.
