Rhod Gilbert has shared sad personal news (Picture: Facebook/ Rex)
Rhod Gilbert has shared devastating news about the deaths of two people in his life – just months after getting the all-clear following his own cancer battle.
The comedian, 55, announced in 2022 that he was being treated for stage 4 cancer after discovering a lump while on a trek raising money for cancer patients. He’s since shared that he’s cancer free, but it seems that hasn’t kept him from facing tragedy.
He recently revealed that he heartbreakingly found out during the interval of one of his stand-up gigs that his friend had passed away from terminal cancer.
He also said that last week he attended the funeral for the dad of another close friend in his life, who had also died from cancer.
He told The Mirror: ‘This week I’ve been to a funeral for my friend’s dad, who died of cancer,’ he said. ‘In the interval while on stage in Halifax, I [also] found out that a friend of mine had died of cancer.
‘I knew he had gone into end of life care, so it wasn’t a huge surprise, but it just happened in that moment where I just so happened to have come off stage during the interval, looked at my phone and read a text saying, “He’s gone”.’
The comedian said of cancer: ‘It’s just everywhere’ (Picture: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)
He went on to reflect on the importance of speaking about how his life has been impacted by cancer, because: ‘It’s just everywhere, which is why I think it’s important to talk about it and get it out there and try and find humour in it and try and normalise it, and that’s what I’ve been doing on stage. I just focused on what good I could do in that moment I suppose.’
He continued to reflect on his own cancer journey, saying how scary it is to hear the words ‘You have cancer’ and that he feels lucky to be here.
He also said that laughter helped him through his cancer battle, and he hopes to spread laughter to help others do the same.
Rhod was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2022 (Picture: facebook/rhod gilbert)
After undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery he went back on the road earlier this year, touring his show Rhod Gilbert & The Giant Grapefruit.
Appearing on The One Show earlier this year he shared a promising health update.
When asked by host Alex Jones how he was feeling, Rhod confirmed he was ‘still all clear’ before joking that he ‘should have checked that before I came on the show’.
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‘I’m still in the care of the wonderful Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff and having checks every few weeks,’ he explained.
After sharing how he ‘felt wonderful’, Rhod said he still had ‘lots of issues’ that might stay with him for life.
‘But who knows? I’m here. I’m good,’ he added.
Rhod opened up about his cancer diagnosis in his latest standup show (Picture: Matt Frost/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
He then went on to say: ‘Every night I’m on stage pinching myself that I’m on stage and performing two years after being diagnosed.’
Speaking more about his show, Rhod said it was ‘happy and uplifting’ despite the fact it discussed cancer.
‘We do cancer bingo some nights and it can get quite dark, but people enjoy sharing, raising awareness and laughing, which is taking some power back from the disease,’ he said.
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