Keith Cullen: 'I’m lucky to be alive. I was changed forever after my cancer diagnosis'

Irish artist, entrepreneur and holistic practitioner Keith Cullen tells Helen O’Callaghan about the major turning point that eventually forced him to reassess many of the things he’d spent years working towards – and to question what success actually meant to him

Keith Cullen pictured at Castletown House, Celbridge, at the recent launch of his book, Dear Future Me: A Memoir by Keith Cullen. Picture: Aishling Conway.

Life can change on one unexpected turn. It happened to me in November 2018.

I’d been doing promotion for an EP. I’d just been on Virgin Media’s Six O’Clock Show and I said to Jennifer, my sister and manager, that I felt tired. Could we take a break until January? I flew back to LA, where I was living. But within a week came an opportunity to do publicity in Australia — unplanned — in the entertainment industry. You strike while the iron’s hot.