'The Bill', 'Footballers' Wives' star Ben Richards battling cancer

The Bill star Ben Richards has revealed that he is undergoing treatment for cancer.

The 39-year-old actor, who also appeared in Footballers' Wives and Holby City, revealed his diagnosis on Twitter last month and described the development as the "scariest news" of his life.

He has continued to update followers since, recently writing: "So, am supposed to be heading off to LA today, instead I'm meeting my Oncologist to discuss my course of Chemo and Radiotherapy. Yep, time...to battle the big C.

"Prognosis is good gang and should kick this into touch in about 6 months, well this should be a different journey."

Richards has upheld a positive outlook about his diagnosis, telling his followers of "3 random tattoo dots either side of my butt" to line up radiotherapy.

"Gonna start a dot tattoo craze, who's in?" he jested, adding later: "Excellent response to my last tweet, seems we have a little gang of dot tattoo's (sic) going on, let's get #dottattoo trending."

Richards has also championed others battling life-threatening conditions, retweeting a post from a cystic fibrosis sufferer on Monday (February 6) and saying: "Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, a message comes on twitter, that I've just retweeted, that puts things in perspective #ManUpBen."

He has repeatedly thanked fans for their support on his profile.

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