EVER THE OPTIMIST

Despite his cancer battle, TV legend Derek Watts is looking on the bright side

- LESEGO SEOKWANG

HE’S a staple of Sunday night television, a respected investigative journalist whose face has been beamed into many of our living rooms every week for the past 35 years. So why, many viewers wondered, has Derek Watts been missing from our screens for a few weeks?

By now many know the answer: the Carte Blanche presenter has taken time out to focus on his health after doctors told him the skin cancer he was diagnosed with last year has now spread to his lungs.

Derek had continued to present the investigative news show after his initial diagnosis last year, but in March things took a turn for the worse.

He collapsed while with his family in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, and had to be airlifted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, where he was diagnosed with a severe case of sepsis.

Derek initially thought he’d had a stroke or heart attack and in a taped recording from his hospital bed, he assured viewers he’d be back on the small screen in no time.

But three months later he was back in hospital – and this time no promises have been made.

The veteran journalist is now recovering at home with the help of his wife, Belinda, and isn’t granting interviews.

His friend and former co-worker, Ruda Landman, says having a positive outlook is helping him in his attempt to fight the cancer ravaging his body.