Popular gaming streamer and YouTuber Ninja has revealed he was recently given a cancer diagnosis.
While the outlook at this stage appears to be reassuringly positive, it's nonetheless a bolt from the blue.
Ninja, whose real name is Tyler Blevins, shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), writing a fairly lengthy post to give all the important details.
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In it, he said: "Alright I’m still in a bit of shock but want to keep you all updated. A few weeks ago I went in to a dermatologist for an annual skin/mole check that Jess proactively scheduled for me. There was a mole on the bottom of my foot that they wanted to remove just to be careful. It came back as melanoma, but they are optimistic that we caught it in the early stages."
Blevins went on to write: "I had another dark spot appear near it, so today they biopsied that and removed a larger area around the melanoma with the hopes that under the microscope they will see clear non-melanoma edges and we will know we got it. I’m grateful to have hope in finding this early, but please take this as a PSA to get skin checkups."
As almost every cancer diagnosis can be, it's a stark reminder that proactive check-ups can save lives, even if they can be a little challenging to book at times.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer, but it can spread to other parts of the body, so catching it early is hugely important when it comes to treatment.
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According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is by far the most common of all cancers in the USA. The society says: 'Melanoma accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but causes a large majority of skin cancer deaths.'
It's typically caused by UV radiation from the sun, but can also be down to other things like family history, age and paleness of skin.
Blevins' wife, Jessica, also posted on X about the situation, clarifying that it felt like a "crazy butterfly effect moment - I probably wouldn’t have started scheduling annual skin checkups yet if we didn’t move to Florida. Foot melanoma is not sun-related, so it would have been there anyways and we might not have found it. Thank God."
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Under Ninja's original post, there are countless messages of support from both the public and other streamers. One wrote: "Love you brother. Praying for you," while another said: "Glad you caught it early man, hoping for the best."