Just last week, comedian Rhod Gilbert received the best news possible. The 55-year-old Welshman had his first clear cancer scan since undergoing treatment for his rare metastatic cancer.
The TV standup, who was a regular guest on shows such as Would I Lie To You?, QI and Mock The Week, revealed back in July that he had cancer of the head and neck and had to undergo surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he had been a fundraising patron for a decade even before the devastating diagnosis.
Rhod told Radio Times that receiving the news that it hasn't spread was "the best day of my life", adding: "I was back on the road earlier this year, I got a call to say my latest scan had shown the cancer was in the areas they knew about, but it wasn't in my lungs or my brain."
He was treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, which he previously fundraiser for (FACEBOOK)The news was later followed by his first clear scan, to which Gilbert said: "The best thing was that the tumour had gone, and it was once again an ordinary blood vessel." Just days before he was set to embark on treatment for the deadly disease, the former Never Mind The Buzzcocks host approached a documentary team to film his harrowing experience.
The film is now being aired tonight on Channel 4 - Rhod Gilbert Pain In the Neck - as part of their Stand Up 2 Cancer series of shows. Explaining how the documentary came about, Rhod said that his diary was cleared of work after cancelling his TV commitments and tours. "I wanted to have something other than 'cancer' in my diary," he said.
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"I thought, 'It will give me something to do'." Rhod, who is married to Welsh actor Sian Harries, first noticed symptoms of his cancer with a sore throat, before a tumour 'popped up' on his neck whilst on a fundraising trek in Cuba. He also experienced terrible spasms in his face and severe tightness in his muscles.
He received his first clear cancer scan after undergoing treatment (RhodGilbert/Facebook)The Welsh comedian said: "I couldn't speak and I couldn't breathe and I was postponing and cancelling tour shows. (We) couldn't get to the bottom of it. It turns out after a biopsy of this lump in my neck that I have something called head and neck cancer, cancer of the head sounded pretty serious."
Since his recovery, he has been gradually returning to his normal self, with his facial hair regrowing, his voice getting back to normal, and gaining weight. After a seven-year break from stand-up, Rhod returned in 2022 with his tour The Book Of John to poke fun at more serious topics he had experienced, such as bereavement, infertility, and suffering a mini-stroke.
He said: "Until this show, all my stand-up was made up. I think pretty much everything was entirely fictitious. And in this show it’s not. It's all true stuff that happened: the stroke, my mum’s Alzheimer’s, the fertility treatment.
"As I got older, I started to feel… that I’ve got a bit of a platform here. And I should be doing more with it than just talking about toothbrushes. I have definitely become somebody who wants to be really open and talk about stuff, and who sees the value in talking."
Rhod Gilbert: A Pain in the Neck for SU2C airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.
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