‘My most cancers has a mortality charge of 97.4% – however I am decided to beat it’

The second you’re advised you will have most cancers won’t be the apparent expertise to look to for laughs. But for Gareth Honeybone, discovering the humour in his analysis has been a cathartic means of coming to phrases with the devastating news. And he has been mining his well being journey for materials for his stand-up comedy act ever since.

“I’ve always been funny in quite a dry way,” says Gareth, 28. “Even during my treatment I’d say things that people found funny, though slightly strange. I suppose it’s my coping mechanism.”

Gareth is properly versed in being on each side of the desk with regards to breaking unhealthy news to sufferers. When he’s not acting at comedy golf equipment, he’s a junior maxillofacial surgeon on the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield.

“At work I’m on the wards, in surgery or seeing patients in my clinic, many of whom may have mouth cancer,” he says. “Then, only a few hours after leaving hospital, I’m trying to make an audience laugh about my own cancer experience. It’s quite a contrast.”

Gareth can hint his journey to the comedy circuit to an unlikely place to begin. In 2016, he was recognized with Crohn’s disease, a lifelong inflammatory bowel situation with signs that embrace ache, weight reduction and urgently needing the bathroom.

In November 2022, whereas having an everyday blood take a look at to observe his Crohn’s, docs discovered a liver abnormality attributable to a blocked bile duct. This turned out to be a uncommon power illness known as major sclerosing cholangitis, wherein the physique’s personal immune system assaults the bile ducts which join the organs within the digestive system.

As Gareth’s situation worsened, he turned yellow with jaundice. So in February final yr he underwent what he describes as his “big operation”. During six hours of surgical procedure, his bile duct, gall bladder and lymph nodes, together with different tissue and veins, have been all eliminated earlier than his bowel was rerouted. “My doctors suspected the bile duct blockage was caused by a cancerous tumour, so as a precaution they took everything out,” says Gareth. “It was only later, once everything had been examined, that cancer was confirmed.”

Gareth was recognized with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) – also referred to as bile duct most cancers – which is extraordinarily aggressive and has a has a poor mortality charge of 97.4 per cent. If caught early, surgical procedure is a possible remedy. Following his surgical procedure, he had six months of chemotherapy. Despite the gruelling therapy, he was again at work by July.

It was whereas recovering that Gareth stepped out of his typical consolation zone. He signed up for an eight-week newbie’s stand-up comedy course taught by knowledgeable comic. It led to him showing on stage at Sheffield’s Leadmill nightclub for a charity fundraising gig. “I’ve always enjoyed watching stand-up but had never performed before except in school plays,” he says. In the weeks earlier than the gig in December about 20 comedy college students who had caught with the course have been inspired to jot down one-liners, develop their stage act and hone their materials.

“We met up once a week at a pub,” he says. “My stage persona was a more exaggerated version of myself talking about what had happened. I did material about my Crohn’s and cancer, but as a patient, rather than a doctor. “I opened my act asking the audience about any bad Christmas presents they’d had, before saying my worst had been cancer.

“I hit it straight away, rather than easing it into my routine, but there were laughs and that line set me up for the rest of my act. I was pleased with how it went and enough people I trusted said it was good. My biggest worry was remembering my eight minutes of material.

“My family and friends came to support me. I’m not someone who swears much, so my parents said afterwards they were surprised to see me swearing on stage. I explained it was part of the performance to make the gags work better.”

Amongst the beginner comics taking part in to the 200-strong viewers, Gareth was the highest fundraiser, accumulating greater than £1,300 for the Alan Morement Memorial Fund (AMMF), the CCA charity. He has since been booked at venues throughout the nation, together with Manchester’s famend Frog and Bucket the place Johnny Vegas was as soon as compere and the place John Bishop did his first gig. “People often remind me that Adam Kay and Harry Hill were both doctors who later became successful comedians,” says Gareth, who has had all-clear after his profitable most cancers therapy. “Most of my colleagues don’t even know I do stand-up when I’m not seeing patients. I like to keep it separate – my comedy is definitely just a hobby for now.”