British actor Eric Idle (79) says he survived the often incurable diagnosis of pancreatic cancer unscathed. The dangerous disease was accidentally discovered very early, wrote the member of the legendary comedy group Monty Python in the US magazine “Time”.
“Three years ago I was very lucky: I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Lucky? One of the deadliest forms of cancer, how on earth can you call that lucky? Well, because it was diagnosed incredibly early,” continued Idle. “No, not before lunch, but before it had a chance to spread.”
In 2019, he had several check-ups with a doctor friend when the doctor noticed a questionable blood value. The doctor then asked a laboratory to take a closer look at the pancreas – he recognized the cancer in the pictures. Idle wrote that the story was not without a certain irony. Because ten years earlier, the same doctor had answered the research question for a play about the fastest way to die: “pancreatic cancer.”
After the operation, the doctor said he was in good health. “The cancer hasn’t come back, you should have around ten years left,” he told him, Idle reported. The comedian, who became famous with films such as ‘The Life of Brian’ and ‘Knights of the Coconut’, had appeared on the TV show ‘Masked Singer’ in the USA. He worked there to see if he could still act after the illness, Idle said.