Oliver Callan announces skin cancer diagnosis following time off air for surgery

RTÉ broadcaster was undergoing a minor procedure when the cancer was found – but says it hasn't spread

Oliver Callan thanked Maura Derrane for holding the reins while he was gone. Picture: Paul Doherty

RTÉ presenter Oliver Callan has announced that he had to undergo surgery for skin cancer.

The broadcaster was absent from the show for just over a week, with Maura Derrane stepping in to cover for him.

On Monday’s show, he thanked her for stepping in “at short notice” and said it was good to be back.

Callan had taken some time off for a small procedure, but it turned out there was something more sinister at play.

He said: “I'd gone off for just a very minor procedure, you see, which I thought would just put me off air for two days, but it turned out to be a longer spell.

“What happened [was] like thousands of us out there with our Irish skin, I got one of those mild skin cancers – so a basal cell carcinoma, that's the official term.” 

Thankfully, the type of cancer it was meant that it hadn’t spread, but Callan had to have it surgically removed.

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“Mine is located on the face – which is a precious place when suddenly someone comes at you with a scalpel – just between the edge of my nose and the corner of my lips, so it meant that I couldn't talk properly or, indeed, I was told not to laugh out loud for the last two weeks, or I'd end up with a nasty, nasty scar.

“Fortunately, there wasn't a lot to smile about while I was gone with all the American carnage and all that trouble over the immigration element of our housing disaster. But look, I'm back now,” he told listeners of his RTÉ Radio 1 show.

During his time off, he said he did “lots of research work for the show” and read upcoming books from authors who he will interview over the coming months.

Callan also said that he had started growing a moustache because he can’t shave the area that was operated on just yet.

“I look [like] something maybe approaching an inept sidekick of a provincial detective in a 1980 Sunday night TV drama,” he joked.

As well as Derrane, he also thanked his team for their patience while he was out.