Rhod Gilbert receives first clear scan after cancer diagnosis

The 55-year-old Welshman announced in July that he had cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he had been a fundraising patron for a decade before the diagnosis.

He underwent surgery for metastatic cancer of the head and neck, followed by sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Gilbert told the Radio Times discovering his cancer hadn’t spread was “the best day of my life”.

“I was back on the road earlier this year, I got a call to say my latest scan had shown the cancer was in the areas they knew about, but it wasn’t in my lungs or my brain,” he said.

The news was later followed by his first clear scan, to which Gilbert said: “The best thing was that the tumour had gone, and it was once again an ordinary blood vessel.”

Days before his treatment was set to begin, Gilbert approached a documentary team to film his experience.

“I was lying in bed on the Friday, with my treatment due to start the following Monday,” he told the Radio Times.

“I rang the team I knew – there was no broadcaster on board, it was all on spec – and I asked, ‘How would you fancy joining me on this journey?’

“It was partly for me. I’d cancelled all my TV work and tours, and I wanted to have something other than ‘cancer’ in my diary.

“I knew I wouldn’t be well enough to go on stage or TV, but I thought I might be well enough to lie in bed and talk to a documentary team about how ill I was.

“I thought, ‘It will give me something to do’.”

Gilbert said it all began when “a tumour popped up on my neck” on the day of a fundraising walk for the Velindre Cancer Centre, and the following months of treatment meant he “wasn’t well enough even to read or watch television”.

He has been a regular guest on shows such as Would I Lie To You?, QI and Mock The Week over the years, and also hosted Never Mind The Buzzcocks from 2014 to 2015.