Stephen Fry shares his battle with prostate cancer on Twitter

Television personality Stephen Fry has announced his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer on Twitter. He also revealed he underwent surgery in January to remove the "aggressive little bugger".

The TV star went on to say that the operation, conducted in January, was ‘successful’ as far as he knows. Although he is waiting for the results of further tests to be sure.

Unsurprisingly, the famous Twitterer chose to make the announcement via a video link on his social media account, where he explained about the removal of his prostate and 11 lymph nodes.

The 60-year-old tweeted a 13-minute video, that had a caption saying: ‘For the last two months I’ve been in the throes of a rather unwelcome and unexpected adventure. I’m sorry I haven’t felt able to talk about it till now, but here I am explaining what has been going on.’

In January 2018, Stephen Fry announced that he was quitting presenting the BAFTA awards after nearly two decades, saying that he felt it was ‘only right to stand down’ and let others have a go.

The role eventually went to Joanna Lumley for the awards in February, and it has just come to light why the famous polymath has hung up this particular hat.

The comedian felt that now was the right time to disclose what he’s been going through, as rumours were already beginning to circulate.

Mr Fry’s prostate cancer was detected after he had an MRI scan, which showed he had cancerous tissue in his prostate. The comedian joked that the experience was like “taking a sledgehammer to a peanut”.

Mr Fry found the initial discovery hard to get his head around. He said: “Cancer is a word that rings in your head. “’I’ve got cancer’, I kept saying to myself, good heavens. You’re not supposed to get cancer. I know it’s a cliche but you don’t think it’s going to happen to you, cancer is something that happens to other people.’

According to Prostate Cancer UK:

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men

Over 47,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year – that's 129 men every day

Every 45 minutes one man dies from prostate cancer – that's more than 11,000 men every year

1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime

Over 330,000 men are living with and after prostate cancer

 
So, what happens next for Stephen Fry? The star seems optimistic about the future, saying: “So far as we know, it’s all been got. Are there greater chances of me getting other cancers now? Apparently not. But I won’t know for sure until I get my PSA levels checked. They should be zero because I have no prostate, so the prostate specific antigen should be zero.

"But if there’s anything left on the bed of the prostate where they’ve taken it out, it may have spread, and I’ll have to get radiotherapy and the whole damn thing will start again. But for the moment I’m fit and well and happy.”