Rhod Gilbert updates fans on cancer diagnosis saying he 'couldn’t speak and couldn’t breathe' before finding lump in neck

Comedian Rhod Gilbert has updated fans as he battles stage four cancer, revealing how he suffered from facial spasms and couldn't "speak or breathe" before eventually finding a lump in his neck. The comedian joked that his diagnosis "p***ed me off no end" after he had spent years raising money for the hospital that is now treating him.

Rhod announced back in July that he had cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff. The 54-year-old Welshman told fans he is now “coming back” to his former self after undergoing treatment.

Appearing in a video message for Channel 4’s The National Comedy Awards, which was in aid of Stand Up To Cancer, Rhod explained that he has cancer of the head and neck. Speaking in the pre-recorded clip, he recalled finding the first lump in his neck while he was in Cuba on a fundraising trek the Velindre.

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He said he had been “struggling” for a while before that with different pains. “I had a sore throat and I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t breathe and I was postponing and cancelling tour shows and I had terrible spasms in my face and a lot of tightness in the muscles,” he explained.

“(We) couldn’t get to the bottom of it. It turns out after a biopsy of this lump in my neck that I have something called head and neck cancer, cancer of the head sounded pretty serious. So before I knew it, I was having surgery. I was in daily sessions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”

Rhod added that it was “a bit odd” receiving treatment at the Velindre Cancer Centre and University Hospital of Wales (UHW), Cardiff as there were pictures of him on the walls from his days as a