BBC presenter Clare Balding is battling thyroid cancer. She has had her thyroid gland removed and is to undergo radioactive iodine treatment in July, the Daily Mail said. She told the paper: "So far there have been no real side effects. I've been wheezing slightly but other than that I feel fine." And she added: "My main worry is my voice because that is what I do." Former jockey Balding, 38, had an initial throat operation in April after the Grand National horse race, the BBC's coverage of which she helped to anchor. The race saw her come in for criticism after she joked live on air about the state of winning jockey Liam Treadwell's teeth. On her website she explained why she had not come on to TV or radio afterwards to publicly apologise. "I was in hospital, having a cyst removed from my thyroid gland and being prepared for a general anaesthetic. I consequently missed most of the discussion," Balding said. The BBC has told her to take as much time off as she wants. She is currently recuperating at her parents' stables in Kingsclere, near Newbury, Berkshire.
