First Dates' Merlin receives all-clear result from bowel cancer
First Dates fans are flocking to social media to congratulate bartender Merlin Griffiths on being given the all-clear from bowel cancer.
The Channel 4 reality dating show star first revealed he'd been diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021.
The 48-year-old underwent surgery to remove his Stage Three tumour last year, but later faced complications and so ended up back in hospital, before undergoing another operation.
Griffiths has since revealed he's been given the all-clear.
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In a post to Instagram, Griffiths shared a screenshot of an email from his doctor.
The message states: "Hi Merlin,
"Hope you are well. Your CT scan has just come through. All looks good, there are no signs of any reoccurrence. Hope this is reassuring."
The reality star's caption reads: "Final Year 1 scan results are in, and it's ALL CLEAR for now. Nice. Thank you #NHS #bowelcancerawareness."
Fans of First Dates have flooded to the post in relief and to congratulate Griffiths on his good news.
One Instagram user wrote: "Well done merlin amazing news keep well and enjoy the new found health x."
"Brilliant news! Well done Merlin. This is fabulous," another said.
A third commented: "Amazing news for you and your family!!!sending love keep it up xx."
Griffiths has spoken openly about his diagnosis and journey with bowel cancer in a bid to raise awareness of the disease.
Griffiths notes while he may have gone through chemotherapy to shrink the tumour and two operations to remove it - since being given the all-clear - he is still living with cancer.
"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," he tells the Sun. "They used to call it remission, now they call it NED, which means no evidence of disease."
The First Dates star now faces a 'five-year ongoing process' until doctors can say for certain there's 'no evidence of disease' and that he's 'as safe as [he] can be'.
Griffiths explains: "From there you'll still have more regular checkups than most and then it’s ten years, you’re off the list from ten years. That's as far as it goes.
"If there’s no recurrence of disease after ten years, then you are technically cured."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week
Topics: Celebrity, First Dates, Social Media, TV and Film, Health, Cancer, Mental Health, Channel 4
Poppy Bilderbeck