FIRST DATES star Merlin Griffiths is encouraging millions of people to get cancer checks following his shock diagnosis last year.
The TV barman – who stars in cancer charity Maggie’s new exhibition Living Every Moment – tells The Sun after undergoing chemotherapy and two operations he is living with cancer.
The 47-year-old star says: “That’s an important distinction to make. Just because you have an operation to remove the tumour doesn’t mean that all of a sudden you are cancer free.
“They used to call it remission, now they call it NED, which means no evidence of disease.
“So NED happens after five years for bowel cancer. Now it’s a five year ongoing process before they are willing to say alright, yeah, you’re about as safe as you can be.”