Ronan Keating discusses the big C

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Boyzone singer Ronan Keating talks to Newsnight's Gavin Esler about losing his mother to cancer, and about his own cancer scare.

Boyzone singer Ronan Keating is a firm advocate in getting checked early if you are worried about a potentially cancerous lump.

His belief comes from the heartbreaking personal experience of losing his mother, Marie Keating, to breast cancer 11 years ago, at the young age of 51.

Speaking to Newsnight's Gavin Esler he said: "The biggest problem was she found it hard to go to the doctor, as all women did then, to get checked for breast cancer…

"Whereas if we had known [what we do now], we could have dealt with this much quicker, much sooner, in a much better way."

Ronan believes the reason that more women than ever in the UK today are surviving breast cancer is down to better awareness and getting checked early.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer estimates that 80% of women diagnosed with the disease in England and Wales will survive for at least five years.

Cancer scare

However, he thinks men need to follow the women's lead: "Men have to wake up to testicular cancer.

"None of us wants to go to the doctor, and you know, drop your trousers and get your testicles checked."

Ronan also understands, from his own cancer scare three years ago, how terrifying a lump can be.

PROSTATE CANCER Is the most common cancer in men in the UK African Caribbean men are three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men 70% of adults in the UK do not know what the prostate does

"I was in South Africa on holidays with my family. I found a lump, I panicked.

"I called my doctor and he said: "listen, relax, don't worry about it - as soon as you get home, get it checked."

He continues: "So I did, and it was fine, a small cyst almost, very regular.

"But you know, for those two weeks on holidays I was a mess."

Tell Newsnight what your reaction is to the word cancer

While the Prostate Cancer Charity estimates one man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK, Ronan believes our attitudes to cancer need to change.

"We still see it as a terminal disease -whereas cancer can be cured if caught in time, and that's the message we've always tried to get across."

Following the death of his mother, Ronan Keating and his family decided to set up the Marie Keating Foundation which helps give women and their families the necessary information to prevent cancer or detect it at its earliest stages.

Watch the Newsnight special on cancer on Monday 6 April at 2230 BST on BBC 2.