Sir Cliff Richard has made an appeal to King Charles following his cancer diagnosis.
This week, the legendary singer, 85, revealed that he has received treatment for prostate cancer.
Sir Cliff said he was diagnosed during a check-up for his latest tour. Thankfully, the cancer was caught early and had not spread.
Cliff Richard reveals cancer diagnosis
Sir Cliff shared the news on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday, in conversation with journalist Dermot Murnaghan. Dermot went public with his own stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
“I was about to embark on tour, I was going to Australia and to New Zealand, and the promoter said, ‘Well, we need your insurance, you need to be checked up for something.’ They found that I had prostate cancer,” Cliff recalled.
“The good fortune was, it was not very old,” he went on. “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.”
We, as men, have got to be seen as human beings who may die of this thing.
“I don’t know whether it’s going to come back,” he added. “We can’t tell those sorts of things. But we need to, absolutely, I’m convinced, get tested, get checked. We, as men, have got to be seen as human beings who may die of this thing.”
Sir Cliff then told Dermot that he would like to see a national screening programme for prostate cancer. He described it as “ridiculous” that such a thing does not already exist.
“We all deserve to have the same ability to have a test and to be able to start the treatments really early,” he said.
He also put forward the idea of working with King Charles on the issue. The king was diagnosed with cancer last year. He hasn’t revealed the type of cancer he has, but he has been undergoing treatment since his diagnosis.
Sir Cliff appeals to King Charles
On Friday evening (December 12), King Charles delivered a deeply personal address as part of this year’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign.
In his message, which was televised at 8pm on Channel 4, he hammered home the importance of attending cancer screenings.
“I have learned something that troubles me deeply – at least nine million people in our country are not up to date with the cancer screenings available to them,” the king said. “That is at least nine million opportunities for early diagnosis being missed. Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.”
In particular, he promoted Cancer Research UK’s new Cancer Screening Checker.
Now, Sir Cliff has said he’d love to work with the king to raise awareness.
Cliff said: “I’ve been involved with many charities over the years and if the king is happy to front it for us, I’m sure loads of people – I certainly – would join him. I’m sure you would. If the king is listening, then I’m sure most of us would say ‘We’re available.'”
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