Kev Johns | My pride in the 'Tackling Cancer Together' campaign is why I first shared my story

Fresh from playing the larger-than life Dame Penny Pockets in the Swansea Grand’s 'Cinderella', Kev Johns MBE is already looking forward to personifying another exuberant pantomime dame next Christmas.

But there was a time just over a year ago when he feared he might never play the iconic role again after a cancer diagnosis left him wondering what his future might hold.

Johns has a naturally positive outlook – “that’s a Kev thing,” he jokes sitting in the famous old theatre to discuss his cancer journey ahead of Swansea City’s home match against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday which is dedicated to cancer support charity Maggie’s.

However, he admits there were quiet car journeys when he feared the disease would take him too soon for his grandchildren to be able to remember him.

Cancer had taken his father, uncle and grandmother and, while the medical professionals had been optimistic from the start, it is almost impossible to hear the word cancer and not imagine the worst.

In March last year, Johns withdrew money from his pension and took his family to Disneyland in Paris. It was a tough day where 100-yard walks were followed by a sit down and a break. But, after receiving the all-clear at the end of 2023, he’s looking forward to returning to the theme park’s Main Street, and visiting Cinderella’s castle just “to prove to myself that things are different now".

His story underlines just how a cancer diagnosis can turn anyone's life upside down, and lifelong Swansea City fan Johns revealed how his pride the 'Tackling Cancer Together' campaign - an initiative born out of the club's partnership with Maggie's led him to find the courage to tell his story publicly for the first time at a fans' forum in the autumn.

“I’d gone for a blood test and went to the GP for the results,” he says, explaining how his cancer journey began.

“They said, 'you’re lacking iron so we need to do another test'. I went for another test, and they said 'we want to you have an endoscopy'. I went back to hospital and had that, and they said ‘there’s a an area we can’t really see, there’s a bit of a shadow there’.

“So then I went for a CT scan, I didn’t think anything of it. I had that and then I was just upstairs in the house the following day and my wife was downstairs. The phone rang with a withheld number.

“It was the doctor and she said, 'we’ve had the scan results' and then she asked if I was on my own.

"I said that my wife was there and then she said 'we have spotted something on your kidney and we think it’s a tumour'.

“I asked if it was cancerous and then she said yes.

“She told me I needed to get some biopsies done, but it still didn’t feel very real, and I was still thinking ‘it’ll be fine, I’ll be fine'.

“I had the biopsies, and then I saw the oncologist and she said those words you dread: ‘There’s nothing we can do'.

“They’d found secondary lesions on my lungs. If they hadn’t found that, they could've operated straight away.

“They started me on a course of immunotherapy.

“I was told at the beginning that immunotherapy is a game-changer in cancer treatment. It is, it’s incredible.

“Even after the first course of treatment, they said my lungs had started to clear, and the tumour had shrunk.

“On the second scan result, the lesions on my lungs were completely gone and we could start talking about surgery.

“My lungs cleared, and then I could have the operation to remove the tumour. I went in on a Friday morning, had the operation Friday afternoon and was back home 48 hours later.

“Within a fortnight, I was on stage at the Maggie’s Ball at Swansea Arena sharing my story. That was only the second time I’d said it publicly. The first time was at the Swansea City fans' forum.

“Now, I can say my latest scan – my first post-surgery scan – showed no signs of cancer anywhere.”

The prognosis had always been positive for Kev, but there were still difficult days, not just for him, but for all the people around him.

And there are moments where he was faced with thoughts of what could have been without treatment, early detection and the help of the NHS.

“I had to take the funeral service of someone who had the same diagnosis, treatment and even the same oncologist as me. They were in the same room as me and they’d lost their life,” he recalls.

“I had a bit of survivor's guilt, and you realise how it could have gone.”

And there were times when his thought process spiralled into the imagining the worst-case scenario.

“Nothing had been said to make me think I wouldn’t make it, the doctors were very positive, but every cancer experience I had been through had been negative," he says.

“My dad died of cancer, my uncle and my grandmother all passed away, so I really thought I wouldn’t see another Christmas.

“I don’t think I’ll ever know how much it affected my family. It’s only really now that my wife is letting me know because at the time she couldn’t show it.

“But it does play on your mind. It was when I was in the car on my own with nothing on the radio; that’s when you start thinking ‘what does the future hold?’

“I’ve got a grandson, my second grandchild was born a few weeks before my surgery and I remember thinking ‘I just want them to remember me’. It wasn’t a case of wanting to be there for their wedding, or graduation, or any particular milestone. I just wanted them to remember me.

“If anything had happened now. They wouldn’t have remembered their Bampa.”

The 'Tackling Cancer Together' campaign had a profound impact on the club’s presenter, lounge host and PA announcer.

As he went through a course of immunotherapy treatment, he watched his colleagues – who he almost exclusively describes as friends – launch a bright pink third kit, covered in coloured spots.

The base colour was deliberately eye-catching, while the colourful spots represented the most common cancer types, with each individual spot representing a different person’s cancer story.

'Tackling Cancer Together' has given supporters the chance to share their stories and it was this platform which prompted Johns - who has never been shy of wearing his heart on his sleeve - to publicly reveal his own story at the club’s fans’ forum in October.

“The support I’ve had from the football club has been incredible,” he explains.

“And when the news came out that they were going to do the Maggie’s shirt – I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of my football club

“My pride in the campaign is why my story came out in the fans’ forum.

“I got a bit emotional. Someone in the audience had said they wanted to praise the club for the work they were doing with Maggie’s.

“I just started talking, and once I started it all just came out.

“Then it was on Swansea Online. I didn’t intend that, because that night wasn’t about me, I was just speaking to the audience.

“I’m not a medical expert, but a lot of people have been in touch because they have been encouraged by my situation. It took me a long time to say ‘I have cancer'.

“Some people live their lives on social media and I do to a point, if I cook a nice meal I put that photo on Instagram, but I did tell people.

“I was in one of the health and wellbeing Cwtch Coffee mornings at the club, and I just thought ‘it’ll help people if I tell them now'.

“Even with everyone around me, all my friends and family, I still felt very alone. But you’re not alone.”

As well as his friends, family, his faith and the NHS, Johns cites Maggie’s as one of the pillars of support he relied on throughout his treatment.

“My first day on the chemotherapy ward was a tough day, because there were people walking around who you could tell had cancer,” he adds.

“People were walking around with machines which administer chemotherapy. I remember looking at them thinking 'that’s my future, that will be me in a couple of months'.

“I remember one day sitting in the chair in the chemotherapy day unit where I was going once a month. A guy came down from Maggie’s just to say 'this is where we are if you want to pop in'.

“I sat down, and they gave me an information pack and central to that was Maggie’s – some other charities as well – but Maggie’s mainly. They don’t have the funding the NHS has, but they can do a lot of the jobs the NHS can’t.

“It’s not just about the fundraising – that is essential – but it’s also the awareness which will tell people that Maggie’s is there for you.

“And it’s not just for the people who have cancer, it’s there for their families and friends too.

“Some people have tests, and then have to wait for treatment later that day, and where do they wait? Maggie’s.

“Some people travel a long way, or are brought to the hospital by ambulance so they might not have anywhere to wait. But if they go to Maggie’s they will be made to feel at home.

“It’s not just the Maggie’s Swansea centre who will benefit from this promotion either. Cardiff has a Maggie’s, there are Maggie’s centres right across the country.

“It’s so important for people to know that they are not on their own.

“There are those who will stand with them, talk with them, sit with them and have a cup of tea.

“People will do anything to make it a little easier while they go through the treatment.

“The club have just been so, so supportive. I couldn’t even begin to list the number of people I want to say 'thank you' to.”

Johns is contemplative as he rounds off his story and, unprompted, offers a final anecdote which perhaps best describes where his journey has taken him, and how it has changed him.

“I’m probably a different person than I was two years ago,” he reflects.

“I think I’m probably more grateful for everything, but I still wish I hadn’t gone through it.

“Last March, I thought the worst, so I took some money out of my pension and took the family to Disneyland Paris.

“My thought process was, if they want something, I’m paying for it. If they want chewing gum, I’ll buy it.

“Walking around Disneyland Paris, somewhere I’ve been a few times as we love Disney, I don’t think I was going more than 100 yards without having a sit down. I was absolutely exhausted.

“I want to go back now, because I want to prove to myself that things are different now.

“I’m a lot fitter now, and a lot healthier.”