Two for Joy: The untold ways to enjoy the countryside

Product Information

Join the UK's most-loved farmer, Adam Henson, on a fascinating journey around the farm. In this interactive non-fiction book, with over 40 flaps, you can discover where food comes from, peek inside a combine harvester, and uncover incredible facts about popular farm animals.

yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice) – it also may cause dark yellow or orange pee, pale-coloured poo and itchy skin

Home of Adam Henson

Around half of all new cases are diagnosed in people aged 75 or over. It's uncommon in people under 40 years of age.

It took no time for Adam to agree. “I said ‘yes’, of course!” he says. The couple gave the cancer news in vague, unscary terms, to their two children – Ella, 25, now travelling in New Zealand, and Alfie, 21, who works in an investment company. However, Adam and Charlie were told that only two percent of pancreatic cancer is neuroendocrine and, even if it was, the size and positioning of the tumour made it difficult to operate on. If it was not neuroendocrine, then all they could do was offer palliative care. Pancreatic cancer is caused by the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells in the pancreas, a large gland that's part of the digestive system.

Early life

When Countryfile presenter Adam Henson's partner was given a devastating diagnosis by doctors, the couple who had been together for more than two decades decided the time was right to get married. Charlie had developed what they thought was a stomach bug over Christmas 2020, but they weren't overly worried. Charlie went on her own to the scan because Covid restrictions were still in place, and she says that before going in she had a "terrible foreboding feeling". It's ridiculous but I really, really wanted everyone to know how much I love Adam; most importantly, I wanted him to know. It was suddenly such a big thing." Adam was still trying to process what they had just heard at the hospital. His first thought was how they would manage to organise a wedding on top of everything else. But Charlie's mum and sisters took care of the ceremony, booking the first available date at Stroud Registry Office - September 9. She added: "By now I had regular diarrhoea, I was washed out and drained – but the tests the GP had run were not showing anything up, nor had a colonoscopy. One final test did show that I wasn’t absorbing food properly and she prescribed a drug called Creon, which provides artificial enzymes. But I had also done what we are all told not to do: Googled my symptoms. It had brought up pancreatic cancer, so I asked if this was a possibility. She assured me that this was highly unlikely but agreed it would be sensible to organise a scan to be safe." It's important to remember that these symptoms can be caused by many different conditions and are not usually the result of cancer.

I had to tell them I’d need time off work and the reason why. As I tried to say the words, I completely broke down. I had been trying so hard not to do it in front of Charlie, but saying it out loud really brought the enormity of the situation home."We were both stunned," Charlie recalled. "It is hard to blame medical professionals who deal with life or death every day, but when they deliver a statement like that, so matter-of-factly, the effect is devastating." Charlie revealed that she was unable to walk after the registrar "dropped that bomb", with Adam having to carry her down the corridor of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Due to Covid restrictions, Adam wasn't allowed in with her when she had to have blood taken. Having children with Adam was our commitment to each other," she says. "A wedding had never been important. Now, suddenly, it was the most important thing in the world. It’s ridiculous but I really, really wanted everyone to know how much I love Adam; most importantly, I wanted him to know. It was suddenly such a big thing." Adam shared: "The whole experience was brutal. Watching her suffer was heartbreaking. But since then, we have made a point of doing lots of things together. Travel is something we both love and we've tried to fit in as much as possible, to Japan and elsewhere. And our Christmas in 2021 was the best of my life."

Charlie was told by her GP that it was "highly unlikely" she had pancreatic cancer, but a scan was arranged just to be safe. She said: "While I was waiting to go in, I was overcome by a terrible foreboding, a feeling of utter fear and dread. I was absolutely convinced there was something seriously wrong. I tried to ignore it, telling myself I was just nervous, but I think from that moment, deep down, I knew I was in trouble."It was going to be an incredibly complex operation,” Adam recalls. “And he wasn’t 100 per cent sure what he was going to find, but he told Charlie he would do his best, and said she would see our grandchildren one day.” She was booked in for surgery for September 10 and the day before the couple were joined by their closest friends and relatives – who knew of Charlie’s condition – at Stroud Register Office.