Sir Cliff Richard reveals cancer battle

He urged others to get checked

The 85-year-old shared the news in an interview with Good Morning Britain, confirming that his cancer has "gone at the moment", but called for more men to go and get checked.

The music icon said: "“I was about to embark on a tour which in fact ended this time at the Royal Albert Hall.

"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.

"They found I had 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.

"And the cancer's gone at the moment, I don't know whether it's going to come back. I mean you can't tell with those sort of things, but we need to absolutely, I'm convinced, get there, get tested, get checked.

“I think we as men have got to start saying it, we've got to be seen as human beings who may die of this thing.”

Speaking on the recent decision not to approve a national screening programme, Sir Cliff said: “I think it’s 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.'

“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.”

The news comes just days after King Charles III updated the nation on his own cancer battle.

Speaking about this Sir Cliff said: “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…

“If the King is listening, I think most of us would say yeah - we’re available!”