WURZELS legend Tommy Banner has spoken out in support of celebrities who choose to discuss their illnesses in public.

Tommy, who lives in Taunton, said the likes of Sir Michael Parkinson – who recently revealed he is battling cancer – help promote discussion of medical matters.

Writing on his blog, Tommy said: “Most people don’t like to talk publicly about family illness.

“I believe if more people were willing to discuss with others their experiences, this could be beneficial to others who might be in the same boat.

“It is so good when high-profile personalities do so because the public are more likely to respond by looking at themselves, and thinking ‘If it can happen to them, it can happen to me’.

“From personal experience, I know this does work.

“When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005, after discussions with family, our management team, and some very close friends, it was decided I would go public in the hope of helping to raise awareness of this dreadful disease that affects so many men.

“I know for a fact I helped dozens of men, and their wives, who, up until then, could not get their husbands to go and see their GPs, even though they thought they might have problems of some kind.

“At that time, my wife Chris and I were forever being stopped while out shopping or socialising, and thanked for doing what we had done to help them.

“It was most rewarding and fulfilling to think these people were grateful to us for doing something which, in all honesty, they could easily have done off their own backs.”