Rhod Gilbert gives health update as he 'takes power back' from cancer with new stand-up

Kathryn Williams

29 April 2024 at 3:29 pm·2-min read

Rhod Gilbert has told fans and viewers of The One Show he's feeling "wonderful" as he's "still all clear" following his treatment for cancer. Host Alex Jones, a fellow Carmarthenshire native, asked Rhod how he was doing and the comedian updated her by explaining he was all clear from cancer, but immediately turned the situation funny.

"I should have checked that before I came on the show," he laughed. "[I'm] Still in the care of the wonderful Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, having checks every few weeks.

"I feel wonderful," he added explaining that he still had a "few issues" that might stay with him for life but said "who knows?" He went on to say: "Every night I'm on stage pinching myself, two years after my diagnosis I'm performing."

Alex went on to say that his new stand-up show, Rhod Gilbert and the Giant Grapefruit, gives people a chance to talk about the tough issue of cancer openly with the comedian confessing that many people come to the show with their own stories of having cancer and they even play "cancer bingo" as part of it.

Rhod added: "It's happy show, an uplifting show. It's as funny as anything I've done. But I am getting a lot of cancer patients and their families come along and the hands go up.....

"We play cancer bingo some nights, it's quite dark. The reaction is amazing."

But Rhod added that at the end of the day, there are a lot of laughs in the show and said: "Laughing that's the most important thing, taking some power back from this wretched disease by laughing at it. "

The 55-year-old Welshman announced in July 2022 that he had cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he had been a fundraising patron for a decade before the diagnosis.

He underwent surgery for metastatic cancer of the head and neck, followed by sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Catch up with Rhod's interview on The One Show on BBCiPlayer now.

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