Television presenter David Campbell has given an update on how close friend Magda Szubanski is going on her health journey as she undergoes cancer treatment.
Campbell will he hosting Channel Nine’s Carols by Candelight for Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl for the twelfth time this week, the show is broadcast on Christmas Eve.
In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald Campbell said he’d be thinking of Szubanski when he took to the stage.
“Magda is really receiving everyone’s goodwill,” he said. ““I think that’s the thing that’s been keeping her going.
“Certainly, she’s been getting it from our family, but also from the nation.”
Szubanski and Campbell have been friends for a decade and she’s godmother to his 10-year-old daughter Betty. The pair met when they both appeared in a 2006 production of the musical The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee.
In May Szubanski shared that she’s been diagnosed with a rare and fast moving blood cancer.
The 64-year-old made news of her condition public via an Instagram post saying she had stage 4 mantle Cell Lymphoma, describing the cancer as “one of the nasty ones”.
During the year the actor and comedian has posted a few videos update on her journey is going, and in August she appeared at the Logie Awards via video link when she was inducted into Australian television’s Hall of Fame.
Accepting the award, Szubanski stressed the honour for her decades of work, not because she was unwell. In true Magda style she made a joke of it all.
“Hello, my darlings. I’m so sorry that I can’t be there. I have do have a good excuse this time. Normally I don’t come because I just can’t be bothered getting out of my pyjamas.
“But this time, there really is a real reason. I want to say, first of all, let’s just get this out of the way alright? I’ve not been awarded this honour because I’ve got the cancer, okay?
“Like, I’m getting this because of 40 years of hard work. Lobbying, bribing, threatening, whatever it took, whatever it took. And finally, it’s all been it’s all paid off, so I don’t feel like an imposter. I feel like I’ve earned it, and I’m thrilled, thrilled,” she said.
The comedian also shared that she gets a burst of energy each time she reads one of the thousands of messages of support that have been sent to her and posted online.
