Noddy Holder Celebrates 80th Birthday, Thriving After Cancer

Slade's Noddy Holder looked happy and healthy as he celebrated his 80th birthday with his wife Suzan. 

The outing comes more than six years after the singer was given just six months to live amid a battle with throat . 

Noddy wore a cargo coat with a blue patterned scarf wrapped around himself, while Suzan, 70, wore a similar jacket with a leopard print scarf. 

Noddy announced his previous health woes in October 2023 after keeping it a secret.  

He underwent a groundbreaking new form of chemotherapy at a hospital in Manchester which has helped keep him alive.

And he said back then how doctors were 'still keeping a check on him.'

He told Sky News at the time: 'I did have oesophageal cancer and that was five years ago and, at the moment, they're still keeping a check on me.

'I'm on a level playing field at the moment after at the time being diagnosed with six months to live. So I've lasted the course, as it were.'

A few months before that, Noddy explained: 'It was touch and go. I lost all my hair. My weight was down to about eight stone. So every cloud.

'I've just had a scan last week and everything's on an even keel at the moment, so I hope it carries on that way.'

Joking, he added: 'I'm fit, fit, fit… but I'm fit for nothing.'

Around that time, Suzan detailed Noddy's secret health battle in an emotional piece written for Great British Life.

Suzan wrote: 'Five years ago we were given the devastating news that he had oesophageal cancer and only had six months to live.

'I'm sorry if that comes as a bit of a shock; it came as a total bombshell to us too. We coped with it the only way we could, by hunkering down, sticking together and doing everything we could to survive it.

'We told only immediate close family and friends and I will never apologise to those we did not confide in, only to those who were forced to suffer pain and anguish alongside us as we attempted to navigate our way through this new and horrifying world.'

Suzan married Noddy in 2004 - they have a son called Django. Noddy married dress designer Leandra Russell in 1976 and they had two daughters, Jessica and Charisse. They divorced in 1984.

Suzan said that the Merry Xmas Everybody singer had managed to keep a positive outlook despite his health woes.

He received treatment at The Christie Hospital in Manchester and underwent a groundbreaking new form of chemotherapy which has helped keep him alive.

Suzan wrote: 'There were no guarantees, no one knew if it would have any effect, let alone work miracles, but he responded well. As anyone who has received a cancer diagnosis will know, the experts never like to use the word "cure", but here we are five years later and he’s feeling good and looking great.'

Slade earned themselves six UK Number One singles during their 25-year career.

Their biggest hit was Merry Christmas Everybody in 1973, with its memorable chorus: 'So here it is, Merry Christmas/Everybody's having fun.

The song is reported to bring in £500,000 in royalties alone each year.

Noddy is no longer in Slade but sole founding member and guitarist, Dave Hill, now 80, continues to play the occasional show with his current bandmates Russell Keefe, John Berry and Alex Bines.

They are soon to be heading to the stage in Henley-On-Thames for Rewind Festival August 21 to 23.

It will mark 35 years since the original lineup of Slade - Noddy Holder, Jim Lea, Don Powell and Dave - took to the stage for one final time before they split in 1991.