Sir Cliff Richard

Another one has joined our unpopular club.

Sir Cliff Richard has revealed he has been treated for prostate cancer.

The 85-year-old singer said the cancer was discovered when he had a check-up for a recent tour, but that it had been caught early and had not spread.

"I was going to Australia and to New Zealand and the promoter said, 'Well we need your insurance, so you need to be checked up for something'. They found that I had... prostate cancer."

"But the good fortune was that it was not very old, and the other thing is that it had not metastasized. It hadn't moved, nothing into bones or anything like that. And the cancer's gone at the moment."

"I don't know whether it's going to come back. We really can't tell with those sort of things.

"But we need to, absolutely, I'm convinced, get there, get tested, get checked.

"I think we, as men, have got to start saying, we've got to be seen as human beings who may die of this thing."

Sir Cliff said he wants to work with the King to improve cancer screening for men, after the King spoke last week about his own cancer treatment and emphasised the importance of checks to catch cancer at an early stage.

Sir Cliff is known for decades of hits including The Young Ones, We Don't Talk Anymore and Summer Holiday.

The musician described the lack of a national screening programme as "absolutely ridiculous".

"We all deserve to have the same ability to have a test and then start the treatments really early," he said.

"It seems to me - I've only been for one year now in touch with cancer, but every time I've talked with anybody, this has come up, and so I think our government must listen to us."

Last month, the National Screening Committee – which advises governments across the UK – said a screening programme for prostate cancer for all men in the UK is not justified.

They say only men with specific genetic mutations that lead to more aggressive tumours should be eligible.
(sigh)