Ed Byrne's joke saved my life
Cancer survivor thanks comic for prompting a GP visit
A woman has thanked Ed Byrne for saving her life with a joke.
Jackie Kaines Laing went to see the comic’s show seven years ago in which he talked about going to see a GP about his diarrhoea.
It prompted her to book an appointment with her doctor the very next day, which led to her being treated for stage 3 bowel cancer.
And last week, BBC Radio Newcastle surprised her with a video call from the comedian, in which she was finally able to thank him.
The 60-year-old said that when she saw Byrne’s show in Berwick, Northumberland, in 2015, he had told a ‘long, convoluted joke’ which mentioned someone going to see their GP because they had a long-standing case of diarrhoea.
She told the BBC: ‘I thought, "I have had diarrhoea for over three weeks, I ought to get this checked out, the guy's right". The very next day I did phone my GP.
‘It was a life-saving joke. The great thing about someone who can turn something into a joke is that it does normalise it, and that’s great for all of us.’
Byrne responded: ‘I am very happy the whole thing has had a very happy resolution.’
But he added: ‘Of all of the routines I have had to suddenly be out there in the papers, why did it have to be the one about me having diarrhoea for three weeks?
‘I remember that routine well. I seem to recall using the phrase "putting oxtail soup in a Sodastream" for a rather graphic description of what was fgoing iun,
‘I would stop short of calling it a life-saving routine. Let me at least share the credit with the doctors, I would say they did most of the life saving.’
Byrne lost his brother Paul, an acclaimed director of stand-up, to cancer last year. The 44-year-old had Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of the disease that attacks the body's lymph nodes.
Ms Kaines Lang has written a blog post about her diagnosis for Bowel Cancer UK, and features in a new film with TV presenter Dominic Littlewood and Dr Hilary Jones raising awareness of symptoms.
Published: 6 Dec 2022
