Dancing On Ice judge Ashley Banjo previously revealed that he found a worrying lump on his testicles, and waited “a long time” before getting it checked out.
According to Cancer Research UK, there are more than 2,000 new cases of testicular cancer per year in the UK alone. Prostate cancer affects even more.
And, while promoting the first series of The Real Full Monty in 2017, in an effort to raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer, Ashley had his own cancer scare.
Ashley Banjo ‘left it a long time’ before getting lump checked
Across two daytime TV appearances in early 2017 to promote The Real Full Monty and talk about awareness of testicular and prostate cancers – on Lorraine and Good Morning Britain – dancer and choreographer Ashley Banjo opened up about a health scare of his own.
“You’re a responsible adult,” she said to him. “You check yourself, of course you do. Everything fine.”
I found a lump and refused to do anything about it.
“Well actually, no I didn’t,” he confessed to her. “That was part of the reason that I took part. I actually had a bit of a scare a little while ago. I found a lump and refused to do anything about it.”
He said he told himself at the time: “It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. I’m a dancer. I’m fit and healthy.” As a result, he didn’t tell his then-wife Francesca, nor anyone else in his family.
“I didn’t get a check-up. And I left it for a long time,” he said.
On Good Morning Britain, he used slightly different language, saying he found “something unusual”, but sighed with relief that it “turned out to be okay”.
“I didn’t even speak about it to my wife,” he admitted. “I was really, really scared. It put the fear in me.”
He also told hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that he lost his nan to cancer, so anything to do with the disease hits close to home.
“She was the first person I lost in my family to cancer,” he said.
Ashley’s split from Francesca
Ashley and Francesca are sadly no longer together. They announced their split in December 2022. However, at the time, they revealed the break-up had occurred a year earlier.
The pair are still friends, though, having been together since they were teenagers.
Read more: Ashley Banjo admits not seeing his children is ‘horrible’ as he navigates co-parenting with ex-wife
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