BBC presenter Clare Balding tells of thyroid cancer battle

SPORTS presenter Clare Balding has thyroid cancer, it was revealed today.

The BBC racing correspondent has already had two throat operations and faces further treatment. She joked: "At the moment I sound like Kermit."

She first noticed a lump on her throat while watching herself on TV at Christmas and had it drained by a doctor.

Balding, 38, had her first operation last month after the Grand National, the BBC's coverage of which she helped 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.

She then had a second operation to remove her thyroid gland.

In July she will undergo radioactive iodine treatment. She said doctors had told her the cancer "won't kill me".

"So far there have been no real side effects," she told the Daily Mail. "I've been wheezing slightly but other than that I feel fine. My main worry is my voice because of what I do."

Balding has been recuperating at her parents' stables in Kingsclere, Newbury. She said her civil partner, newsreader Alice Arnold, has been "very calm and supportive, as have my family".

She has vowed to be back on TV for the Derby at Epsom on 6 June, wearing a jacket with a high collar to cover her neck. It looks like I have had my throat slit, but it won't stop me being at the Derby," she said.