Labour MP Chris Bryant undergoing cancer treatment again after disease returned
MP Chris Bryant has shared that he’s undergoing cancer treatment for a second time after the disease returned. (Andrew Matthews/Pool/AFP/Getty/Cava)
Gay Labour MP Chris Bryant has revealed he’s been undergoing cancer treatment for a second time after the disease returned.
The MP for Rhondda, Wales, underwent treatment for skin cancer in 2019 and has revealed that he’s been undergoing further treatment after cancer was spotted in his lung.
Bryant took to X/Twitter on the morning of Monday, 13 May, to give followers an update after the cancer was removed, stating that his chances of being completely cancer-free are now “really, really good”.
Bryant, who was among only a handful of out gay MPs when he was first elected in 2002, recalled in a video, in honour of Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month, how just over five years ago his husband spotted “an odd looking mole” on the back of his head.
After having the mole checked he discovered it was a melanoma, stage three. He was given a 40 per cent chance of living for a year.
After a year of treatment his chances improved and for the past five years he has been free from cancer, but in January the cancer showed up on his lung.
Bryant praised immunotherapy, which he is now on, meaning his chances of being “completely cancer-free in 10 to 15 years time is really, really good,” he shared.
Immunotherapy uses the immune system to fight cancer and works by helping it to recognise and attack cancer cells, as noted by Cancer Research UK.
Bryant urged everyone to “take skin cancer seriously” and always check moles and wear protection from the sun.
In a later post, Bryant shared candid photos showing his mole before and after surgery. He wrote: “Let’s beat skin cancer”.
In December last year, Bryant told Parliament that he feels less safe in the UK as a gay man than he did three years ago.
He explained that the rhetoric used by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, who informed MPs of a revised blacklist of more than 50 countries the government claimed let people transition “too easily”, had led to LGBTQ+ people around the country feeling unsafe.
Bryant is a staunch LGBTQ+ advocate and in 2022 he was praised for his “accurate and sensible” response to being asked “what is a woman?” is by a caller on LBC.
Following comments from both Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak saying trans women aren’t women, one called asked Bryant: “What is a woman?”
Bryant replied to explain that “there are people who feel they are trapped and I have every single sympathy for somebody who feels the need to transition.”
He went on to say that it “really frighten” him that politicians use trans identities to “stir division” when “your right to live your life the way you want and feel comfortable is absolutely intrinsic to a decent society”.
