Stephen Fry revealed today he has undergone surgery to remove his prostate, due to cancer.
Fry, who had the operation in January, said "They took the prostate out," adding on his website: "So far as we know it's all been got."
The television host and broadcaster stated the cancer was "aggressive" but "doesn't seem" to have spread.
He continued "For the moment I'm fit and well and happy and I just wanted to let you know because rumours had started to swirl."
"my darling, darling husband" Elliott Spencer had been "just marvellous".
"Here's hoping I've got another few years left on this planet because I enjoy life at the moment and that's a marvellous thing to be able to say, and I'd rather it didn't go away," he added.
His condition was given a Gleason Score – a scale used to rate the aggressiveness of prostate cancer – of nine out of 10 before the operation, in which surgeons removed 11 lymph nodes.
Fry is now urging men to get their prostate checked.
"I generally felt my life was saved by this early intervention, so I would urge any of you men of a certain age to get your PSA [prostate specific antigen] levels checked," he said.
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What is prostate cancer?
- It's the most common cancer in men in the UK – an ageing population means more men are developing and dying from the disease
- 40,000 new cases are diagnosed and around 11,000 men die from it each year
- It can develop slowly over years and many men have no symptoms
- Noticeable symptoms include needing to urinate more often and weak flow
- There is no single test for prostate cancer – the PSA blood test, biopsies and physical examinations are all used