US YouTuber Hank Green has revealed he has been diagnosed with cancer, saying: “I know this sucks most for me, but I also know that it sucks for everybody in this community.”
The popular content creator, best known for running the Vlog Brothers channel with his sibling, author John Green, posted a video on Friday telling his viewers he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He explained that after discovering his lymph nodes were enlarged, he went to see his doctor who sent him for an ultrasound and biopsy.
In the video he said: “Good news and bad news, one it’s cancer, it’s called lymphoma. It’s a cancer of the lymphatic system.
“And good news is it’s something called Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It’s one of the most treatable cancers.
“It responds very well to treatment. The goal is cure. The procedure to get there is fairly well known, if unpleasant. I have a friend, amazingly enough, who has been through a diagnosis and treatment and remission and is 10 years post with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“It’s been really nice to have that in my back pocket for texting and being like ‘Is this normal? Am I panicking? And please tell me I’m going to be okay’.”
Hodgkin lymphoma is an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, which is a network of vessels and glands spread throughout your body, according to the NHS website.
He added: “I have a bunk of risk factors for lymphoma including medications I’ve taken, the fact that I have an autoimmune disease, the fact I had mono when I was a kid. All of these are risk factors so it was something that I was look out for and have been aware of. I’m glad everyone took it seriously and we got a diagnosis pretty quick.”
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Reflecting on how he was doing following the news, he admitted: “As you can tell I’m fine, but I’m not fine. And it sucks, like I know that this sucks most for me, but I also know that it sucks for everybody in this community.”
He later wrote on Twitter to say that he was currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. He also posted a video on Instagram which he captioned: “Thanks yall. Still doesn’t really feel real but here we are!!”
In the clip, he encourage his followers to sign up to his newsletters as he feels that will be how he continues to be active while undergoing treatment.
“I want to keep making stuff if I can and chemo’s minimum four months for me, if I’m pretty sick for that period of time, I might not be wanting to make podcasts and videos but writing a little something to put in a newsletter seems more doable probably. So if you can sign up for that, that’d be great.”
Due to his recent diagnosis, he will not be attending VidCon, an annual vlogger convention which is being held in Anaheim, California next month. The Green brothers make video blogs on a range of topics from updates on their life to deep dives into various topics for their Vlog Brothers channel, which has more than 3.5 million subscribers.
John Green is also a best-selling author with titles including The Fault In Our Stars, Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska, with the former two being adapted into films.
