BBC presenter Clare Balding gets all-clear on cancer therapy

The BBC presenter Clare Balding needs no more treatment for thyroid cancer after having a lymph node removed at the end of November, she revealed today. "Not taking too much for granted, but very, very relieved & can sing into 2011 with glee," she reported on Twitter. The 39-year-old has been having radioactive iodine treatment since having a cyst and her thyroid gland removed in 2009. Balding also gave the good news on BBC Radio 2's French and Saunders programme. "I had to have a little operation just before Christmas to take out a nasty little lymph node and there was a worry that I might have to have more treatment," she said. "But I had a lovely letter from my oncologist just after Christmas saying, 'Hurrah, no more treatment', so I'm very happy about that." Balding, who first made her name as a racing and sports presenter, first became aware of a problem after spotting a lump on her throat while watching herself on TV. Last September the Press Complaints Commission upheld her complaint over a Sunday Times review of her series Britain by Bike in which the writer AA Gill called her a "dyke on a bike", saying some words had been used in a "demeaning and gratuitous way". Thyroid cancer is a relatively rare form of the disease. In 2007 more than 2,100 cases, about 75% of them women, were diagnosed in the UK. It caused 354 deaths in 2008. Symptoms include a lump in the neck, a hoarse voice, a sore throat and difficulty swallowing that does not get better.