The Witcher Voice Actor Doug Cockle Speaks Out on Cancer Diagnosis
Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher video games, has spoken out on his prostate cancer diagnosis and the importance of getting tested.
Speaking to IGN, the beloved voice actor explained he had no obvious symptoms pointing to cancer but a combination of different factors led him to get checked.
"I had no symptoms, no pain, nothing I could point to in my body that was telling me that I have prostate cancer," Cockle said. "In that sense my diagnosis was a big surprise." A family history of prostate cancer had always been in the back of Cockle's mind, however, and after watching a documentary in which an interviewee spoke of lower back pain — something he experienced as a result of mild sciatica — he decided to get tested.
"I guess I knew it was a possibility, but to be told that, yes, I have prostate cancer, was still a surprise," Cockle added. "It's that old thing, you know, [it] won't happen to me."
Watching the documentary opened Cockle's eyes to the importance of discussing cancer openly, as if he hadn't seen it, he wouldn't have thought to get checked.
"It's so important to talk about this stuff," he said. "It can be so easy to ignore symptoms or family history or whatever and just live in relatively blissful ignorance. We don't want to know really, do we?
"The knowledge that something isn't right can lead to discomfort and pain and we don't want that. That's normal. But knowledge is also power: the power to choose your path. I chose mine and now, hopefully, I've got many years left in which to enjoy my life with my family and friends.
"My cancer was pretty well advanced so a few more years untested might have meant that my choices were fewer and/or the treatments might not have been as effective. Talking
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