Sir Cliff Richard opens up about cancer diagnosis

Sir Cliff Richard has revealed that over the past year he has been treated for prostate cancer. 

The 85-year-old singer said the cancer was discovered when he went for a health check-up for insurance ahead of a tour. 

"I was going to Australia and to New Zealand and the promoter said, 'Well we need your insurance, so you need to be checked up for something'. They found that I had... prostate cancer," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

Watch the video above.

The cancer was thankfully caught early and had not spread. 

"But the good fortune was that it was not very old, and the other thing is that it had not metastasised. It hadn't moved, nothing into bones or anything like that. And the cancer's gone at the moment," he continued. 

Richard admits he doesn't know if the cancer will come back, adding "we really can't tell with these sort of things".

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After going through it himself, he is backing calls for a national screening test for men. 

"But we need to, absolutely, I'm convinced, get there, get tested, get checked," he said. 

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

Richard is passionate about pushing the message for cancer screening and wants to work with King Charles, who recently spoke about his own cancer treatment and the importance of checks to catch cancer early. 

"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!"

Earlier this year the The Young Ones singer admitted that his touring days might be coming to an end.

"I don't want to be an 85-year-old guy trying to be 18," he told New Zealand radio station Coast.

Asked if his Can't Stop Me Now tour could be a farewell tour, Cliff replied: "I don't know. I might be dead the next year!"

Richard's career has spanned almost seven decades, rising to fame in the '50s, but he admits that constant touring has started to take a toll on him.

"It's very wearing, and you never know when you wake up in the morning whether your voice is still there," he said.

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