First Dates star Merlin Griffiths has opened up about his ongoing battle with bowel cancer and has encouraged millions of others to get checked out for the disease.
The TV barman says he is still 'living with cancer' despite undergoing chemotherapy and successful operations to remove a 4.5cm stage three tumour earlier this year.
The Channel 4 star, who also runs his own pub, faces a further operation later this year, however, and has been told there is a 30% chance the cancer could return in the next five years.
"Just because you have an operation to remove the tumour doesn’t mean that all of a sudden you are cancer free," he explained. "They used to call it remission, now they call it NED, which means no evidence of disease."
Speaking to the Sun, he continued: "So NED happens after five years for bowel cancer. Now it’s a five year ongoing process before they are willing to say alright, yeah, you’re about as safe as you can be.
"From there you'll still have more regular check ups than most and then it’s ten years, you’re off the list from ten years. That's as far as it goes. If there’s no recurrence of disease after ten years, then you are technically cured."
Discussing the early stages of his diagnosis in summer last year, Merlin revealed that after first visiting his GP surgery with symptoms of the disease, his follow-up with a gastroenterologist was booked for several months later due to him being under 50 and otherwise healthy.
However, a subsequent visit to A&E with 'excruciating pain' led to urgent treatment thankfully being carried out much sooner.
He now lives with a stoma on his abdomen, which he says 'saved his life', but this could be removed before Christmas depending on the results of scans, which is 'exciting'.
Merlin went on to reveal that he has been getting a lot of support from his fellow First Dates colleagues including Fred Sirieix and Cici Coleman.
He said that 'it's nice to know they care' which makes him feel better.
He added that bosses at the show and its spin-off - First Dates Hotel - had been 'amazing', adjusting filming around his treatment to ensure he remained on screen as much as possible.
Merlin Griffiths who is living with bowel cancer, is working with Zurich as part of its Living Every Moment campaign, which includes a photography exhibition, curated by photography legend Martin Parr. The exhibition features images taken by people who are also living with cancer and has been created in order to encourage people to get tested early for signs of cancer. For more information, visit https://www.zurich.co.uk/support/everyday-moments
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