Coronation Street star Jack James Ryan has opened up about being diagnosed with testicular cancer at just 19-years-old. The actor, who is winning praise for his portrayal of reformed drug dealer Jacob Hay on the ITV soap, was first diagnosed in 2017.
While going on to make a full recovery, the soap star has shared how he feels 'grateful to be alive' and that his life on the cobbles is enriched further by what he has been through. "Every day I get on set I think: ‘Wow, this could have been so different,'" he said.
Jack, now 24, explained that he was studying at drama school when he returned to his mum Maranna's house in Manchester for the Easter holidays and discovered a lump while his mum and older sister Rebecca, who recently starred in the ITV soap as Lydia Chambers, were downstairs.
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"My sister had a friend round. I screamed: ‘Rebecca! Rebecca!’ She ran upstairs and I told her that her friend had to go," he recalled to the Mirror. "She asked her to leave and she came back upstairs with my mum and I told them what I’d found."
Jack got booked into the doctors and was referred to hospital, where he had surgery to remove his left testicle and went on to receive a prosthetic replacement. Afterwards, he underwent chemotherapy to ensure that the cancer had not spread. Four months later he returned to his course at Guildford School of Acting in Surrey,
"I don’t take anything for granted anymore," he said. "I did before, but I don’t now – I know how lucky I am. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I did think there was a possibility I might not make it. But I did and I’m living my dream. I’m just so glad that things turned out well and I’m grateful that I’m here. I’m loving every second of it."
While he says he was 'lucky', the trauma understandably took its toll on Jack’s mental health and he stopped dating for a year. "I was struggling with my body image and I didn’t feel comfortable being intimate in that way with another person," he candidly told the publication.
Jack had counselling, but what really helped him come to terms with what had happened was writing a play about his experiences, Me & My Left Ball in 2019. "It was a proper grieving experience," he said. "I was able to write down everything I was feeling. Sometimes in rehearsals I’d have to go out and cry. I’d think: ‘F***, I actually went through this.' I bottled things up. It was that toxic masculinity of not being able to say how you feel. I hadn’t cried in front of somebody since I was a kid.
"I remember being in hospital and the doctor confirming it was cancer. My mum and my sister both burst into tears and I remember thinking: ‘Jack, don’t cry.’ I was really scared and I probably needed to cry, but I thought if I stayed strong then everybody else would feel OK about it."
Jack, who is in remission and has checks every six months, joined Coronation Street in 2021 as Jacob. He first made an appearance last March as part of a gang who were running drugs under the cover of food deliveries which saw him befriend Simon. After his three-month stint on the soap, Jack went down to London to work at the National Theatre. But the Manchester actor was thrilled to get the call about a return to the famous cobbles.
He previously told the Manchester Evening News : "To me, I was like I had done it, it was amazing and I was moving on so I was walking to work and I got a call from my agent. She was like: 'Hey, Corrie have rang. They want you to come back.' and I was like: 'What!?' I was doing laps of Liverpool Street station. I was just running round like a mad man."
Jack has since returned to Weatherfield as Jacob who is now setting about changing the opinions of him alongside new girlfriend Amy Barlow, played by Elle Mulvaney. In the last few weeks Corrie fans have seen Jacob help save the life of troubled teen Max Turner while also impressing in his job at Underworld.
