In a video shared to his official website overnight, beloved author and broadcaster Stephen Fry revealed that he has spent the past several months battling prostate cancer, after a diagnosis in December.
Fry said that he visited his doctor just before Christmas for a flu shot, but a full health check revealed high levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and a follow-up MRI confirmed that he was suffering from prostate cancer.
He was offered the option of radiotherapy, a “long and difficult process”, or alternately, a surgery to have his prostate removed. He chose the latter, and underwent the operation in January. Speaking about the experience, Fry said:
“It all seemed to go pretty well. They took the prostate out, they took out 11 lymph nodes. The various bits that were taken out were examined and it turned out I had a Gleason score of nine, and considering 10 is the maximum, it was clearly an aggressive little bugger.”
The process, he said, was not pleasant:
“It’s a bit of a business having an operation like that. There are five holes punctured in you, it’s like being stabbed five times … to the body, it’s the same traumatic effect. It’s all pretty undignified and unfortunate.”
The 60-year-old is currently recovering, but will require ongoing health checks, saying:
“… if there’s anything left on the bed of the prostate where they’ve taken it out, it may have spread and I’ll have to get radiotherapy and the whole damn thing will start again. But for the moment I’m fit and well and happy.”
He said that he feels “bloody lucky” to have received such good care, and urged other “men of a certain age” to get their PSA levels checked, saying that “early intervention” saved his life.
“Here’s hoping I get another few years left on this planet,” he continued, “because I enjoy life at the moment. That’s a marvelous thing to be able to say, and I’d rather it didn’t go away.”
You can watch the full video from Stephen Fry’s website below:
