Comedian Katherine Ryan revealed that she and her family have been going through a harrowing private struggle, with the star diagnosed with cancer in tandem long after doctors kept telling her nothing was wrong
Katherine Ryan is known for always bringing a smile to people’s faces, but she recently got real and revealed she’s dealing with a lot behind the scenes. The comedian shared that she’s juggling her own health crisis with a family member being severely ill – and shared the overriding message of looking after each other and advocating for your own health.
During a recent episode of her podcast Telling Everybody, Katherine, 41, explained that she’d been struggling with a family member being ill.
“There is a family illness right now in our extended family that we’re all navigating and, you know, things just happen. I have never taken my life for granted and I never will,” she said.
The most recent episode of the podcast delivered even more bad news, as the Would I Lie To You? star revealed that alongside navigating the family issue, she’s personally battling skin cancer after being diagnosed with melanoma.
Katherine detailed her full journey towards diagnosis, after first becoming concerned in 2022 – and made it clear that had she not stood up for herself the problem may not have been identified. This is also the Canadian actress’ second diagnosis with melanoma, after first encountering the issue in her early 20s.
Katherine explained that she noticed a mole on her arm and got it checked by a medical professional who said nothing was wrong, but she was still “really worried” and felt that something was off.
She added of her choice not to just accept the all clear and “walk away”: “The mole kept changing, I know a lot about melanoma, I had stage two melanoma as a very young woman – aged 21 – on my leg, I’ve spoken about that before.
“Even that didn’t traditionally look like melanoma. But fair enough, it had some discolouration and asymmetry. It was flat, it wasn’t that big but it was melanoma. It is a deadly form of skin cancer and it does spread quickly.”
Katherine explained that while her doctor told her it was fine she felt otherwise, and after getting it removed she “wanted the doctor to remove a bigger piece of it and stitch it up in a straight line.”
She added: “But even when he looked at it, he was like, ‘it’s not melanoma, it’s totally fine, I will do a shave and send it away for testing.'” Soon after the doctor reassured Katherine once more that it was definitely nothing, she was called back with the confirmation that it was melanoma.
During the podcast, she explained that she was still in the early stages of getting the issue sorted. “It’s early melanoma and [the doctor] was shocked because it doesn’t look like melanoma but it is,” she said. “He said ‘you need to come back on Monday’, which I don’t have time on Monday but luckily he gave me some time in the afternoon.”
Katherine then took a moment to encourage others to follow her lead and trust their instincts, thinking about what the situation could have been like down the line if she’d bottled her worries and kept quiet.
“It’s crazy what could have happened if I didn’t continue to be my own advocate and I will continue to be my own advocate…” the mother of three considered.
“If I hadn’t pushed, if I had taken that good answer the first time and walked away then I would have had melanoma just growing and spreading on my arm.”
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