Comedian Rhod Gilbert has admitted he dismisses his cancer symptoms as a “sore throat” and is warning others not to make the same mistake.
The Never Mind The Buzzcocks panellist, 56, was diagnosed with stage four head and neck cancer in 2022 before being given the all-clear last year.
In addition to swallowing discomfort, he suffered from a persistent cough, but GPs simply warned him that he was abusing his voice.
The NHS advises anyone who has suffered from a cough for more than three weeks to make an appointment with their GP.
When Gilbert, who is married to writer and comedian Sian Harries, noticed a lump in his neck, doctors agreed to a biopsy and the alarming cause was discovered.
“Fortunately that lump appeared,” he said. Mirror this week.
“If that lump hadn’t appeared, I don’t know what would have happened, I’m afraid to think.”
Head and neck cancer is the eighth most common form of cancer overall in the UK, although it is two to three times more common in men than women.
Comedian Rhod Gilbert has admitted to writing off his cancer symptoms as a “sore throat” and is warning others not to make the same mistake.
The Never Mind The Buzzcocks panellist, 56, was diagnosed with stage four head and neck cancer in 2022 before getting the all-clear last year.
Around 12,500 new cases are diagnosed each year, according to Cancer Research UK, and the incidence is rising. About 4,000 people die annually from this disease.
Doctors have recently warned that they are seeing cases of throat cancer in “much younger patients” and suggest that oral sex is driving this worrying trend.
A report from October revealed that hundreds more people are dying from the disease than before the Covid pandemic, with cases increasing by almost 50 per cent since 2013.
The new findings add to previous research that found that since the early 1990s, rates of head and neck cancer have increased by more than a third in Britain, with the trend partly due to patients being diagnosed younger.
Smoking, alcohol and human papillomavirus (HPV), a normally harmless virus that is transmitted sexually and through skin contact, are the main causes.
Although those over 65 are most affected by the disease, the increases are due in part to the increase in young patients, including those under 50, developing it.
The general term head and neck cancer refers to cancers of the mouth, larynx, nose, throat, salivary glands, and paranasal sinuses.
However, esophageal (throat) and thyroid cancer, brain tumors, and eye cancers are not usually classified as head and neck cancers.
The comedian will perform across the UK in 2024 and 2025 on his Rhod Gilbert & The Giant Grapefruit tour and says his illness influenced some of the content of his show (pictured in 2018).
Gilbert revealed that he was battling cancer in 2022 in a statement released on social media, just days after pausing his tour at the time.
The Welshman allowed cameras to follow him during a “brutal” but “wonderful” treatment at Cardiff’s Velindre Cancer Centre.
The resulting Channel 4 show, A Pain in the Neck for SU2C, aired earlier this year.
He said: “I think one of the problems we have is that some cancers don’t have any symptoms.”
‘With some of them, the symptoms could well be something else and are more likely to be something else.
‘The problem with coughing, you hear about this 100-day cough, but I think the general rule is that if something persists and doesn’t go away, if it doesn’t go away after a few weeks, then get it checked.
“Don’t panic and make sure you do everything you can to get it checked out.”
Gilbert still undergoes checkups with his cancer team every six months, but says he considers himself “one of the lucky ones.”
“My treatment was wonderful and they gave me the go-ahead in May 2023. I am currently doing well and now I have ENT camera checks every six months,” he explained.
Last month, Gilbert revealed that two people close to him died of cancer just months after being told their treatment had been a success.
He was given the terrible news about the death of a friend in the middle of a stand-up performance.
“This week I attended the funeral of my friend’s father, who died of cancer,” he said.
‘In the interval, while I was on stage in Halifax, I (also) found out that a friend of mine had died of cancer.
“I knew he had gone into hospice, so it wasn’t a big surprise, but it happened at that moment where I happened to walk off stage during the interval, looked at my phone and read a text message saying, ‘He’s gone.'” .
The comedian will perform across the UK in 2024 and 2025 on his Rhod Gilbert & The Giant Grapefruit tour and says his illness influenced some of the content of his show.
Rhod explained: ‘Grapefruit, partly a nod to the tumor he had in his neck, and partly to the fact that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
“Well, this is what you do when life starts throwing grapefruits at you, which is even worse in my opinion, but it’s a happy sight, it’s an uplifting sight.”