The comedian and Taskmaster winner has been diagnosed with hairy cell leukaemia, a blood cancer he describes as ‘incurable’ but treatable
Comedian and former Taskmaster star Richard Herring has revealed to his Substack followers that he has been diagnosed with cancer once more, this time in a different part of his body and described as “incurable”.
“Let me give you the bad news first. I have cancer again. Not ball cancer this time, I can’t afford to lose another one of those (though I will be doing my show ‘The Male Eunuch’ if it does happen),” he announced to his subscribers on the publishing platform for writers.
“This time I have blood cancer. And God is determined to make sure I get the funniest cancers possible and this one is called hairy cell leukaemia. The other bad news is that it is incurable.”
Despite the alarming diagnosis, he went on to reassure his readers that the condition is in fact treatable, even if a full recovery is not on the cards in the near future, reports the Mirror.
“The good news is that it’s entirely treatable and will not kill me (the treatment has a tiny chance of killing me, but so has loading the dishwasher, so don’t worry about it).”
“I will of course be using the fact that I have incurable cancer for all it’s worth for the rest of my (hopefully long) life. I can get out of doing other people’s podcasts, any social event I don’t fancy and also set up a justgiving page with me with a sad face, hugging my kids and asking for money to help them once I’m gone.
“Ha ha ha. It’s not even a scam. It’s all true. I just won’t mention that fact that it’s treatable.”
He explained that receiving a cancer diagnosis on this occasion had been a lengthy process: “they found a few of the cells in my bone marrow about 12 year ago, but it didn’t get any worse and after five years of being tested the doctor said it was probably going to be OK.”
He went on to admit that he’d “sort of forgotten about it” until his recent conversations with medical staff.
Richard went on to describe his first day of chemotherapy and his dealings with the NHS throughout the remainder of his good-natured post, reassuring fans there “were no immediate problems.”
The comedian is perhaps best known for his stand-up work, and in 2020 he was both a contestant and the ultimate winner of the tenth series of Taskmaster. That same year, he also went up against Ed Gamble, Kerry Godliman, Liza Tarbuck and Lou Sanders in the second “Champion of Champions” special, which he likewise took home.
He has created, written and performed fourteen one-man shows, and co-wrote the beloved sitcom Time Gentlemen Please. Richard also commands an audience of over 10,000 followers on Substack, where he regularly posts content and personal updates, including this latest health revelation.
The comedian has also popped up on a host of other television programmes, among them Have I Got News For You, as well as this year’s The Great Celebrity Pottery Throwdown.
At the end of his post on Substack, Richard confirmed the blood cancer and his previous testicular cancer were not connected: “It’s not linked the the testicular cancer. Someone up there just doesn’t like me. But they don’t hate me that much. So keep giving me the flimsiest and easiest to live with and funniest named cancers available.
“To have one cancer elicits sympathy, but getting two starts to look a bit like attention-seeking. At least get a properly dangerous one if you’re going to make a big deal about it. I feel a bit embarrassed about it,” he joked.
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