Chris Evans speaks to TalkTV exclusively about skin cancer diagnosis

Chris Evans has spoken exclusively to Talk Radio and TalkTV’s Mike Graham in his first TV interview since revealing his skin cancer diagnosis.

The Virgin Radio presenter announced his diagnosis on his breakfast show on Monday, when he said that it has been caught early, meaning it’s treatable.

Of the announcement, Mike said: “You look pretty happy. You don’t look as if you’re worried about it too much. Are you?”

Chris replied that he isn’t worried about it at all, he believes he got the second-best possible diagnosis.

“The first being it’s all clear, it’s not cancerous. The second being we couldn’t have caught it any earlier, and it is sometimes referred to as pre-cancer or stage zero,” Chris told Mike. “Because it’s what’s called in situ which means it hasn’t moved yet. It’s making up its mind. And if you can catch cancer at that point, then you can remove it before it’s decided what to do.”

He explained it was a freckle which he hadn’t seen, but the lady who does his weekly massage spotted the mark on his left calf six weeks ago. She told him he ought to get it checked out.

Chris continued: “The next Friday I went back and she said, ‘What did they say about the freckle?’ I said I didn’t go and she gave me this different look, more maternal look… And I’ve had the colonoscopies, everything else they found polyps, they’ve cut them out. But I was going to do something about it.

“I think I was going to do something about it anyway, but she gave me a look just six days after the first time. She said, ‘Do it for me. Go and get this checked out’ and I thought, ‘Yeah absolutely of course I will’.

“So, the next Tuesday, I went to see somebody who I’ve been to see before about skin issues and they’d frozen things off me before bigger freckles that weren’t anything but they freeze them off anyway just so they can’t morph or metastasise into something more sinister.

“I went to see this genius and she said, ‘I don’t think it’s anything either but I’m going to do a biopsy’. ‘Ok when?’ ‘Now’. So I was operated on. She took a biopsy and then I went on holiday and she said, ‘We’ll let you know…I don’t think it’s anything’ and this is what she does for a living, she looks for melanomas and even she said, she has this really fancy microscope with the light on it, which was right on your skin… ‘I don’t think it’s anything’.”

Chris received an email while he was on holiday, asking him to call to discuss his results.

“You get yourself ready for that phone call and then she described what it was and she said, ‘Look, obviously nobody wants to get this’ but she said, ‘If you could choose one, this is the one you would want to get’. They couldn’t have caught it earlier. I’ve got an operation on the 14th where they’re going to take a bigger patch of skin off the back of the calf, they’ll do a graft, and that should be it,” he explained.

Mike asked, “Did it look weird?”

Chris replied: “Now that you say that, yes it did, but it didn’t at the time. I have lots of blemishes. I’m a redhead. I’m covered in freckles.”

On why he made the decision to speak publicly about his diagnosis, Chris explained: “The reason I talked about it yesterday is because if we can be useful ever in this job of ours or in life, in general then we should be.

“Simon Jordan was brilliant while I was away talking about colon cancer as was John who works on our show because he had colon cancer. If you cut it out, it is out. But if it begins to have its wicked way with you, you don’t know where it’s going to end up, you know, and obviously the bigger the organ the more chance you have of dealing with it because there’s more to cut out.

“The thing about skin cancer is it can go up, down, north, south, east, west and if you can go down into [the body] as well. So I’m more grateful today than I’ve ever been for anything. I feel extraordinarily lucky, genuinely. I’m not saying this because it’s a cool thing to say but I’m very blessed and very happy to talk to you about it.

“One of the most common misses in detection is for men, single men in the middle of their back because nobody sees it. So just chase… lumps, bumps, boobs, tums, bums, willies. Check it all out. The only thing to fear is inaction. I know that’s a big deal for some people, but if you’re not going to do it for yourself, do it for those people,” Chris added.

Watch or listen to The Independent Republic of Mike Graham, daily 10am-1pm on TalkTV and Talk Radio.