John Blackman underwent a massive 12-hour operation to remove a cancerous growth on his mouth and jaw in 2018.
And the Hey Hey It’s Saturday star has opened up on how his life changed after the life-saving operation.
The 76-year-old says that the operation stripped him of his career, but not his sense of humour.
‘When I went to my surgeon to get the results of the test he said, ‘Look, John, your life is going to change completely from now on,” he tells the Herald Sun.
‘Professionally, financially, emotionally, it is never going to be the same again. You will never work in front of a mic again.
John Blackman (pictured) underwent a massive 12-hour operation to remove a cancerous growth on his mouth and jaw in 2018
‘Everything the surgeon said has come true. Even now talking to you, it is painful. I can’t do what I love,’ John went on.
‘Thankfully, I still have my sense of humour, they did not remove that.’
In 2022, John faced a second battle when he was diagnosed with brain cancer, which was removed with a six hour operation that left a titanium mesh plate in his head, but thankfully, his life was saved.
‘That was the one that could have actually killed me, because it was a very aggressive cancer (Squamous Cell Carcinoma) that was growing right on the top of my noggin,’ he said.
‘When I went to my surgeon to get the results of the test he said, ‘Look, John, your life is going to change completely from now on” he said. Pictured with his wife
Blackman previously opened up about his condition to hosts Sam Newman and Don Scott on the You Cannot Be Serious podcast.
He also compared his surgery to John Farnham’s, who underwent an 11-and-a-half-hour operation to remove a tumour from his mouth after his family revealed he had been diagnosed with the cancer six months ago.
‘I don’t think his was as radical as mine because I had all of my lower jaw removed along with the teeth,’ he said.
Blackman, of Hey Hey It’s Saturday fame, was diagnosed with a severe case of skin cancer known as a basal cell carcinoma in August 2018.
The cancer was discovered on a routine trip to his doctor to see about an inflamed pimple, which prompted many operations to follow.
‘Even now talking to you, it is painful. I can’t do what I love. Thankfully, I still have my sense of humour, they did not remove that’ he said
Blackman’s jaw was substituted with a portion of his thigh bone.
‘I had a little pimple under my skin, you scratch at it and it turned out it was a BCC,’ he said.
‘They said it was really aggressive and it was about to eat away the rest of my face and eventually get to my brain and I’d be brown bread.’
He revealed another growth had sprouted ‘in a crater’, a result of one of the removal procedures, and started to move towards his brain.
No matter the ordeal he’s been through, Blackman still feels fortunate to be alive.
‘Adversity, doesn’t matter how important or smart you think you are, everyone has some sort of adversity in their life,’ he said.
Blackman, of Hey Hey It’s Saturday fame, was diagnosed with a severe case of skin cancer known as a basal cell carcinoma in August 2018