Sir Cliff Richard has revealed he has been treated for prostate cancer for the past year. In an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain, the 85-year-old singer revealed that his cancer had "gone at the moment" and supported calls for a national screening test for men.
"I don't know whether it's going to come back," said Sir Cliff. "We can't tell those sort of things but we need to, absolutely, I'm convinced, get there, get tested, get checked."
Sir Cliff explained that he was diagnosed after a health check for his insurance ahead of a concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. "I was about to embark on a tour. I was going to Australia and New Zealand, and the promoter said well we need your insurance, so you'll need to be checked up for something," said the musician.
"They found I had a prostate with cancer, but the good fortune was, it was not very old. And the other thing is that it had not metastasized. It hadn't moved into bones or anything like that."
Sir Cliff, who is known for his long standing music career and hits such as The Young Ones and We Don't Talk Anymore, said the lack of a national screening programme was "absolutely ridiculous".
"We have governments to look after our country and those who live in that country, so I can't see how you can say, 'Oh we can do this, we can do that, but we don’t do this for these people'," he said. "We all deserve to have the same ability to have a test and then start treatments really early.
"It seems to me – I've only been for one year now in touch with cancer, but every time I've talked with anybody this has come up and so I think our Government must listen to us."
Sir Cliff also shared his hopes of collaborating with King Charles III on awareness, who announced last week that his cancer treatment would be reduced in the new year.
"I've been involved with many charities over the years and if the King is happy to front it for us, I'm sure loads of people, I certainly would join him," he said. "If the King is listening, I think most of us would say 'yeah – we're available'."
Sir Cliff's calls for national testing come as the UK National Screening Committee announced a draft recommendation in November for a targeted prostate cancer screening programme. If implemented, it would invite men aged 45-61 with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation for biennial screening.