My brush with cancer, by Chris Evans

Chris Evans has spoken about his bowel cancer scare after having surgery to remove pre-cancerous growths, detected during a colonoscopy.

The disease killed the Radio 2 DJ's father when Evans was only 13.

The presenter, 45, urged his morning show listeners to have a check-up.

He said: "I was recommended by my doctor to go and have another doctor look at what's going on down below because of the history of cancer in my family so I went for this routine operation yesterday.

"So I went along for this routine check and anyway, here's the thing, they found some nasties up there and they removed them like that. Done, done deal."

Evans urged listeners who could be at risk of developing the disease to get checked out.

He said: "They found something, they sorted it out and I feel great."

The former Big Breakfast presenter, who has more than nine million listeners, took over the show from Sir Terry Wogan last year.