Writer AA Gill diagnosed with "the full English" of cancer

Hugely respected writer and restaurant critic AA Gill has revealed he has been diagnosed with cancer.

Visiting his doctor for an X-ray after being told how much weight he’d lost during a family holiday over the summer, Gill, 62, was told the news that cancer had spread from his lungs to other parts of his body. 

Yet even with such terrifying news, TheSunday Times columnist managed to break the news in true British spirit – with a stuff upper lip and a healthy dose of humour.

He wrote in the paper: "I've got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English. There is barely a morsel of offal not included. I have a trucker's gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy."

In the interview he revealed he’d first become aware he may not be in good health after people began commenting on his weight loss. Additionally he found himself unable to complete activity, such as a climbing in Scotland which he regularly undertook, in the same way. 

Despite quitting smoking 15 years ago, doctors found that the writer had a smoking-related cancer which had spread from his lungs.

Gill told readers of his column that he was revealing his diagnosis because he is currently undertaking a course of chemotherapy to battle the illness – a treatment that can affect the sensation of taste, and might alter his critiques of restaurants. 

"If ever things start tasting like licked battery terminals, I'll tell you," he wrote. 

Pic: REX/Shutterstock