Rhod Gilbert says he’s received first clear scan after cancer diagnosis

Actor revealed last year he had been diagnosed with stage four head and neck cancer

Rhod Gilbert has said he’s received his first clear cancer scan for the first time since undergoing treatment.

The Welsh comedian, 55, who revealed he had stage four head and neck cancer in July 2022, described learning the disease hadn’t spread as “the best day of my life”.

Gilbert, who recently announced a huge tour, was treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff –an institution for which he had been a fundraising patron for a decade before being diagnosed.

The comedian told Radio Times: “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.”

Soon after, he had his first clear scan. Addressing the result, Gilbert stated: “The best thing was that the tumour had gone, and it was once again an ordinary blood vessel.”

Gilbert said that, days before his treatment was set to begin, he approached a documentary team to film his experience.

“I was lying in bed on the Friday, with my treatment due to start the following Monday,” he continued. “I rang the team I knew – there was no broadcaster on board, it was all on spec – and I asked, ‘How would you fancy joining me on this journey?’

“It was partly for me. I’d cancelled all my TV work and tours, and I wanted to have something other than ‘cancer’ in my diary. I knew I wouldn’t be well enough to go on stage or TV, but I thought I might be well enough to lie in bed and talk to a documentary team about how ill I was.

“I thought, ‘It will give me something to do’.”

Gilbert said it all began when “a tumour popped up on my neck” on the day of a fundraising walk for the Velindre Cancer Centre, and the following months of treatment meant he “wasn’t well enough even to read or watch television”.

Rhod Gilbert (Getty Images)

He has been a regular guest on shows such as Would I Lie To You?, QI and Mock the Week over the years, and also hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 2014 to 2015.

Additional reporting by Agencies