Robert Lindsay Says Friend Saved His Life After 2010 Diagnosis
Robert Lindsay says a friend who pushed him to get checked for prostate cancer saved his life, and he is using that experience to push men toward testing. The Sherwood actor and My Family star discussed his diagnosis on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, June 2, and said he has been cancer-free since 2018.
Robert Lindsay on Good Morning Britain
Diagnosed in 2010, Lindsay said the warning from his friend came before the disease reached a point where treatment became harder to manage. “He said, 'Robert, please get yourself checked,' and he saved my life,” he said, adding that the friend died a couple of years later. He also urged a more open dialogue between men, saying, “First of all, there's got to be a dialogue between men, really between men,” and, “Because we do not talk as openly as you girls do with each other.”
Zoe Wanamaker and the diagnosis
Lindsay said he first learned of the cancer while working with Zoe Wanamaker on My Family, when he was trying to keep performing in front of “500, 600 people” and cameras while processing the diagnosis. “I can't remember the recording at all. It was in front of a studio audience 500, 600 people, cameras, lines, bang, bang, bang. All I could think was, I could be dying,” he said. That is the part most men never hear about: the routine of work continuing while the medical clock is ticking.
NHS testing and less-invasive exams
Lindsay said he is campaigning for the NHS to acquire more equipment for less-invasive examinations rather than surgical procedures to test for prostate cancer. He said, “I was monitored, and it came to the point where it was getting a little near to the periphery, and they can't help you after that.” He and his wife then had to make a decision, and he had his prostate removed.
At 76, Lindsay is now making the case from experience, not theory. “I've had a very healthy and sexual life. I'm very, very happy,” he said, and the practical message is plain: the check is earlier, less dramatic, and far cheaper than trying to reverse a problem once it has moved too far.
