Kriss Akabusi has revealed his life was saved from bowel cancer after his Sky News co-stars urged him to see a doctor during a discussion about the condition.
The former Olympian, 61, says it was an on-air discussion about men being slow to see their doctors over health complaints that led to him making the appointment which saved his life.
Kriss mentioned he had been having some issues to co-stars Tania Bryer and Sarah-Jane Mee who told him on-air to get it checked out.
He told The Sun he’d experienced bleeding from his bottom since his early 20s due to piles and hemorrhoids: ‘The problem has come and gone, and I hadn’t taken much notice.
‘But as I got older it’s happened quite a lot. Two years ago there was an article in the papers about men being slow to see their doctors.
‘We were on TV discussing it. Sarah-Jane and Tania said: “Let’s change that. That’s nothing to be proud of – go and see your doctor.”‘
The women told him that they would be checking that he had been to see his doctor when he next appeared on the show, so he felt pressured to go through with the appointment.
That discussion in 2018 meant that he had to undergo a colonoscopy which discovered a growth, which doctors suspected to be bowel cancer.
Kriss ended up having a third of his colon removed as well as polyps in his groin and received the news three weeks later that it had been caught in time before it turned cancerous.
The growth turned out to be stage one and not cancerous, and was discovered six months before it could potentially develop.
He added: ‘It’s a sobering moment. But Tania and Sarah-Jane saved my life.
‘You do start thinking – how many more summers have I got? How many times can I play with my four grandkids? Hopefully now I can see them go to university.’
He admitted that the ordeal means he is now ‘very aware’ of his mortality and thinks about death every day, but says the discovery has hopefully meant he will live longer than if he hadn’t found out.
Kriss wants to urge other men not to be embarrassed to see their doctor if they are having symptoms, adding: ‘Real men catch it as soon as they can as they want to be there for their grandkids.
‘Go and see your doctor. They have seen many bottoms before.’
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-- to metro.co.uk
