RE-WATCH: Cavan’s Oisin Kiernan on RTE's Late Late Show

The Castlerahan club star, who played a pivotal role in the 2020 Ulster title winning run, had an important message for people regard checking for cancer

Cavan footballing star Oisin Kiernan had an important message to deliver when he spoke during a very special Late Late Show celebrating Daffodil Day.

For the second year in a row the traditional annual Irish Cancer Society fundraiser had to be cancelled due to the lockdown but for Late Late host Ryan Tubridy and the show’s producers to step up in recognition of the army of volunteers and the legions of patients and families supported by the charity.

Kiernan, who in mid-2020 was diagnosed with testicular cancer and went through both surgery and chemotherapy before making a remarkable and triumphant return to the playing field just six weeks after his final treatment, opened up on national television about the ordeal.

The Castlerahan club star, who went on to play a pivotal role in the 2020 Ulster title winning run, was asked by Tubridy if he could have “saved himself a lot of trouble” had Kiernan he acted much sooner when he first “suspected something was wrong”.

“We’re not sure, but there’s a good chance,” replied Kiernan, whose affable and humble nature leapt of the screen of the flagship Friday night chat show.

“There’s a good chance I’d have had to cut out all that chemo. I was back on the field after the operation at four weeks. I could’ve cancelled out all the chemo, but that’s the way it went. Look, there’s lots of learnings from it.”

Tubridy went on to ask Kiernan to ask what his “message” was for others.

“Men or women, it doesn’t really matter, but people sometimes might feel a lump, might feel something isn’t quite right and say I don’t want to know, fingers in the ears,” said the presenter.

Kiernan added his own two-cents to the conversation: “It doesn’t work, it needs to be checked out. The sooner the better. I left it five, six weeks. It was five, six weeks too late really.”

He adds: “I think the obvious thing also is to check yourself and be aware of your body. To examine yourself and to know your body.”

To watch the interview in full, click HERE.

Others to appear on last Friday night’s show were Westlife star Shane Filan speaking to Ryan for the very first time about how he coped with recently losing both of his parents, Mae and Peter, to cancer, just ten months apart.

Pop twins Jedward meanwhile shaved their heads live on air to help raise Daffodil Day donations. John and Edward's mother Susanna died in 2019 from cancer.