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Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Sam Cook

First Dates' barman Merlin Griffiths in hospital with bowel cancer 'complications'

First Dates' Merlin Griffiths has shared an update with fans following a hospital visit for bowel cancer. The bartender, who announced that he had the illness last year, shared a photo from his hospital bed, in which he wrote: "Oh... Squibwibble. #complications. #nhs. #BowelCancerAwareness." To find out more about Griffiths, read here.

Griffiths rose to fame on the Channel 4 dating show, as the bartender who chats to the daters while they wait at the bar for their match in the hit show. Fans and friends quickly took to the comment section to wish him well, with one user writing: "Prayers for a speedy recovery and return to wellness for you dear Merlin"

Meanwhile, another person told the TV personality: "You got this!" Griffiths has appeared on First Dates since it began in 2013. It is a hugely popular TV show which continues to attracts millions of fans of all ages.

Read more: Holly Willoughby's Wimbledon dress cost over £700

Merlin is a staple of Channel 4's First Dates (© Nick Harvey 2019)

Father-of-one, Griffiths, was told by doctors that he has a 75% chance of living beyond five years following his bowel cancer diagnosis. He announced his illness in an interview with Sunday Mirror last September, explaining that he was facing a year of treatment while vowing: "I won't let it get the better of me."

During the interview, the TV bartender, who also owns a pub in Lancashire, revealed that he started feeling pain in June that year, but thought it was caused by scar tissue in his stomach from a car accident when he was 20.

Griffiths said: “I thought, as most people must when they get a diagnosis, ‘Oh f***, I’ve got cancer’. He also said that he wanted to know what his chances of surviving were. He said: "It’s terrifying – of course I want to live." It was here that he he was told the doctors' prognosis.

Griffiths has said that the first people he told of the diagnosis were his partner Lucile, French maitre d’hotel Fred Sirieix, and waiters Grant Urquhart and Cici Coleman.

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