Incurable – but treatable – form of leukaemia

Richard Herring has revealed he has been diagnosed with blood cancer – having  previously seen off the testicular version of the disease. 

The comic that he has a form of leukaemia that is incurable… but entirely treatable. 

Writing on Substack, he said: ‘Let me give you the bad news first. I have cancer again. Not ball cancer this time, I can’t afford to lose another one of those (though I will be doing my show "The Male Eunuch" if it does happen).

‘This time I have blood cancer. And God is determined to make sure I get the funniest cancers possible and this one is called hairy cell leukaemia.

‘The other bad news is that it is incurable.

'The good news is that it’s entirely treatable and will not kill me (the treatment has a tiny chance of killing me, but so has loading the dishwasher, so don’t worry about it).

‘I will of course be using the fact that I have incurable cancer for all it’s worth for the rest of my (hopefully long) life. I can get out of doing other people’s podcasts, any social event I don’t fancy and also set up a justgiving page with me with a sad face, hugging my kids and asking for money to help them once I’m gone. Ha ha ha. It’s not even a scam. It’s all true. I just won’t mention that fact that it’s treatable.

‘It’s pretty annoying to get another cancer just after the other one is basically at the all-clear stage, not least because I can’t do another show and book about it so soon.’

Herring said the leukaemia has been ‘bubbling under; since a few cells were detected in his bone marrow about 12 years ago, but repeated tests suggested it was going to be OK.

He explained that it was not linked to the testicular cancer, adding: ‘I am not too worried or upset, but I am not delighted to have had two cancers before the age of 60. What treats await me should I live into the next decade?

‘To have one cancer elicits sympathy, but getting two starts to look a bit like attention-seeking.’

Published: 16 Jun 2026