Chris Evans tells listeners he is now cancer free

Image caption, The star used to present Channel 4's Big Breakfast and TFI Friday, as well as the Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows
  • Author, Paul Glynn
  • Role, Entertainment reporter

DJ Chris Evans has told listeners he is now clear of skin cancer, eight weeks after he was first diagnosed.

The Virgin Radio UK presenter, 57, revealed last month that doctors had caught it quickly meaning it was "as treatable as cancer can possibly be".

In an on-air update on Wednesday, Evans said he had undergone surgery last week, and that surgeons had since given him the all-clear.

He added he had barely slept since receiving an update from his surgeon.

"I never thought for a second you could lose a night's sleep because of an email like this," he said on the show.

Reading the email out loud, co-presenter Vassos Alexander quoted the surgeon as saying: "I have forwarded the pathology report. It is excellent news.

"There is no residual disease. You have the all-clear."

Evans explained he had the surgery last Thursday, following a phone conversation with his dermatologist, who told him that the freckle - originally found on his leg by his masseur - "had moved, metastasised, was malignant" and would need to be "removed".

"And so, at quarter-to-four last Thursday, I had cancer and at quarter-to-five, I didn't," he beamed. "And I just found that out last night.

"And that's because time is your biggest weapon against it, if you have an abundance of it, and its biggest weapon against you if you have a lack of it."

He went on to urge listeners with cancer symptoms to get themselves checked. "If you're worried about anything, just bear in mind the fact that eight weeks ago I was diagnosed with cancer and now I don't have it at all," he said.

"And that's why you just need to attend to things. And it's really tough, because for years I was the guy who wouldn't go anywhere near that. But you know, times have changed, thank God."

It comes eight years after the former 大象传媒 Radio 1 and Radio 2 broadcaster was given the all-clear following a previous prostate cancer scare.