Patrick Murray didn’t tell John Challis about his cancer diagnosis.
John Challis died in September following his own cancer battle
The 65-year-old actor - who revealed his cancer diagnosis on Tuesday (25.01.22) after finding out himself last summer - admitted that he kept it from his former 'Only Fools And Horses' co-star as he didn’t want to burden him knowing his friend was having serious health problems of his own.
John - who played Terrance ‘Boycie’ Boyce in the cockney comedy – died of cancer on September 19th 2021. He was 79.
He told The Sun newspaper: “I knew he had serious problems and didn't want to lay it on him that I had it too. The last thing he said to me was, 'I'm eating watermelon' because they help thin the blood naturally, which he needed to do. Bless him, he was a great man.”
Patrick - who played Mikey Pearce in the BBC sitcom - revealed he was lucky to be alive after medics discovered a tumour on his liver in August, and they feared he would not make it past Christmas.
He discovered he had cancer after visiting his GP over growing concerns of his bloated stomach which left him feeling pregnant from the extra weight.
After patiently waiting months for an appointment due to the pandemic, and basic urine and stool samples coming up clear, he was finally booked in for an ultrasound.
He added: “The very next morning, I got the phone call nobody wants to hear when the doctor says, ‘Are you sitting down?’ The first primary diagnosis was actually a lot worse than what it was.
“It showed up a lot of red flags that I had a tumour on my liver and three metastatics - which is cancer of the blood. I was told it looks like I wouldn’t make Christmas.”
However, he later received some "fantastic news", while also having the tumour removed.
He said: "I got fantastic news that they weren’t metastatics — they were hemolytics, which are usually harmless. But the PET scan did show there was a tumour in my lung so I had that removed in October.
"They caught it early and right now I’m on chemo to make sure it doesn’t come back. If I left it a couple of months later, I could have been in real trouble. I probably wouldn’t be here now.”