Xolani Gwala will be back behind the mic this afternoon, just a month revealing he’s in remission following his fight with colon cancer.
The Radio 702 presenter will stand in for Joanne Joseph for the next few weeks.
His return was confirmed this afternoon on The Azania Mosaka Show as he gave listeners an update on his health, more than a year after being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
“So much has happened that it will take me a lifetime to understand what has happened over the past year,” he admitted when asked how he was feeling. “For now, I’m good. I’m healthy . . . as healthy as can be.”
He also admitted it would still take years before he can be declared cancer-free.
“This cancer is a question of time. It will take time before I can say I am cancer-free. It will take probably five years, 10 years even. Maybe 15 years but at the moment whatever the doctors set out to do in September last year, when I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, they’ve achieved all those goals. They are very happy and I’m good to come back to work.”
Speaking on his return to his day job, the former Asikhulume: Let’s Talk presenter admitted he was “nervous as hell and emotional”.
Xolani also explained how he found out he had cancer.
Following his triumphant participation in the 2017 London Marathon he began to feel sick and started losing weight. While doctors thought it was a viral infection, it was his wife who took him to hospital to get checked out as he struggled to get better.
It was only after a variety of tests and scans where conducted that it was discovered he has cancer in his liver, which had also spread to his colon. The tests also found that seven out of eight segments of his liver where covered with cancer while there was also some in his lung.
Reflecting on his decision to go public with his fight, Xolani says he wanted to educate people about it.
“Even though I cannot explain why me, because I’m fit, I don’t drink I don’t smoke, there are so many other people who have cancer but we don’t talk about.”
