Sir Cliff Richard has revealed he was treated for prostate cancer over the past year.
The 85-year-old singer said the cancer was discovered while he was undergoing medical checks required for insurance ahead of an international tour.
“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,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Richard said the cancer was caught early and had not spread.
“But the good fortune was that it was not very old, and the other thing is that it had not metastasised. It hadn’t moved, nothing into bones or anything like that. And the cancer’s gone at the moment,” he said.
However, he acknowledged there is no certainty about the future, adding, “we really can’t tell with these sort of things”.
Following his diagnosis, Richard has spoken out in support of a national prostate cancer screening program for men.
“But we need to, absolutely, I’m convinced, get there, get tested, get checked,” he said.
“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.”
Richard has also expressed a desire to work with King Charles to promote cancer screening awareness, following the monarch’s recent comments about his own cancer treatment and the importance of early detection.
“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…” he said.
“If the King is listening, I think most of us would say yeah – we’re available!”
Earlier this year, the Young Ones singer suggested his touring career may be nearing its end.
“I don’t want to be an 85-year-old guy trying to be 18,” he told New Zealand radio station Coast.
When asked whether his Can’t Stop Me Now tour could be a farewell, Richard said, “I don’t know. I might be dead the next year!”
With a career spanning nearly seven decades after rising to fame in the 1950s, Richard said the physical demands of touring are becoming increasingly challenging.
“It’s very wearing, and you never know when you wake up in the morning whether your voice is still there,” he said.
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