Comedian Mark Steel reveals cancer diagnosis: ‘It was one of the happiest moments of my life’

Steel, 63, was initially informed the results of his biopsy were ‘lost in transit’

Mark Steel has been diagnosed with throat cancer, the stand-up comedian has revealed in a first-person piece published on Monday 9 October.

Steel, 63, described the moment his diagnosis was confirmed as “one of the happiest moments in my life” as it preceded an agonising wait for his biopsy results that were initially “lost in transit”.

He shared that, while the cancer had spread to his lymph glands, it is “very treatable” and no longer “as final as being beheaded”.

Steel added he hopes to return to perfoming onstage in around six months, in an article first shared on his website.

He wrote: “I’m writing this a few days from an operation that I hope will confirm the location of the cancer, from which a programme of treatment can begin. The current estimate is that I should be able to start performing again in about six months.”

Steel is a BAFTA-nominated writer, comedian, and author. He is best known for the BBC Radio 4 show Mark Steel’s in Town, as he travels across towns in the UK and creates custom stand-up sets for the locals he interacts with.

He was also the presenter of the BAFTA-nominated Mark Steel Lectures for BBC Two, and regularly appears on BBC One’s Have I Got News for You as well as Radio 4’s The News Quiz.

He also hosts his hit current affairs podcastWhat The F*** Is Going On…? as Steel tries to make sense of the world around us.

After announcing the diagnosis, Steel thanked his followers for their “funny caring messages” of support in a message on X/Twitter.

“And to my brilliant partner and magnificent son and daughter, amazing friends and astonishing staff at St George’s and when this is over you must all come to mine to celebrate good health by getting utterly drunk x,” he added.

The English presenter recalled he first noticed how one side of his neck was “looking much bigger than the other” somewhere around the middle of June.

“I Googled ‘Why is one side of my neck suddenly much larger than the other?’” he continued. “Most of the answers suggested there’s nothing to worry about “unless it hasn’t gone down after two weeks”. After two weeks I told myself it had sort of gone down, in that it was only a bit bigger.”

After an intitial consultation with his doctor, Steel was booked in for a scan before being advised to undergo a fine needle aspirational biopsy – as he grappled with the fear that “that’s how cancer starts”.

He continued: “A few days later I had a phone appointment with a doctor. He asked if I’d suddenly lost weight, if I had night sweats, couldn’t swallow properly, was out of breath, had blood in my mouth, did I smoke, how much did I drink?

“These were unsubtle cancer questions, as obvious as a detective leaning towards you in a cell and asking if you have any evidence you were alone at home on the night of the murder,” Steel added.

After his biopsy, Steel was told its results would be shared in “around seven days”, with the podcast host growing more optimistic that the lump wasn’t cancer when he still hadn’t heard back from the doctor’s office in five days.

“Several people had told me that if the results were ominous, I would hear quickly. So when five days passed, I felt confident. When it got to 12 days, I rang the hospital cheerily and was told the biopsy was still being checked,” he said.

Shortly after, he was informed that the results of his biopsy had been “lost in transit” and he would need to undergo a repeat biopsy to determine what stage of cancer he has.

“’Hang on,’ I said, ‘No one has said it’s definitely cancer, are you saying it’s definitely cancer?’ Steel asked a member of the hospital staff.’

After the biopsy was found at a different hospital, Steel learned he had secondary cancer – meaning he had cancer in two places. Eventually, he learned that the primary cancer is a lump in his throat, which he had initially discovered while shaving in June.

“The results of the PET scan, the Rolls-Royce of scans, showed there was no cancer in me outside the neck and throat area, so there should be no reason why a combination of treatments wouldn’t cure it all,” he concluded, adding that “it’s a cancer that can be got rid off”.