In the United Kingdom, the announcement of King Charles III’s prostate operation led to a 1,000% jump in cancer screenings. On January 16, 2024, Buckingham Palace decided to publicly share his diagnosis (enlarged prostate) to raise awareness among the general public. And this is also what the Belgian actor Nicolas Gob, star of “Les Bleus, first steps in the police”, “Thank you, the children are fine”, “A French village”, “The art of crime” does and more recently “Rivière-Perdue”.
“I was 26 years old and it was initially testicular cancer”
The actor is one of the first French-speaking personalities to open up about his testicular cancer. As World Cancer Day approaches, February 4, 2023, he recalled in the columns of Gala, this January 25, 2024, how important it is to get checked.
The 41-year-old star assures: “I was 26 years old and it was initially testicular cancer. The problem was that unfortunately I waited. I was filming at the same time, I was a young actor, I hadn’t dared say I had a problem…“. And added: “I really waited a long time. I had metastases that spread everywhere: on the kidneys, in the thorax… There was a moment when I could no longer not say it. Initially, I had to have an operation before doing chemo to try to reduce the metastases that had arrived after the testicular cancer tumor.”
“It doesn’t call into question the man I am“
To break the taboo around male illnesses – which Movember is already trying to do – Nicolas Gob assures: “We are in such a stigmatized society. It calls into question: what is it to be a man? How? Does it go through the balls? Because it represents strength? I have never really been like that , but it calls into question a lot of things. It has – almost – developed my feminine sensitivity even more, I am very proud of it. We don’t need all these codes. I have one less burn today. I live very well. I have two children, I can make love to my wife without problem. This does not call into question the man that I am, nor the potential virility that I could have. L “The important thing is to be able to overcome it, to grow up and become someone. Talking about it can remove a taboo, help boys to talk about it, free speech and apprehensions.”
F.A.