Comedian Dai Henwood says he is “gutted” at having to cancel upcoming shows amid his ongoing battle with cancer.
The 47-year-old who had regular appearances on comedy shows including 7Days, Have You Been Paying Attention and Taskmaster, revealed in 2023 he had been diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer in 2020 and had been undergoing radiation treatment ever since.
In a post to his Facebook page, Henwood and comedy management Notorious announced remaining shows on his tour of Aotearoa were cancelled.
“After some recent changes in treatment, and some new challenges being presented, we have taken the decision to cancel the remaining shows in Dai’s tour of Aotearoa,” the post said.
“Shows that were already postponed to June in New Plymouth and Invercargill will no longer go ahead.”
The company said it was “with a deep sadness” that the decision was made.
“However it wasn’t difficult, as we will always prioritise Dai’s health.”
In his own words, Henwood said he was “gutted to be cancelling these shows”.
“We really thought things were going to be okay, but cancer sucks,” he wrote.
Notorious said Henwood remained committed to making Kiwis laugh, and that his focus was on getting better “so he can continue to do so”.
In 2024, the comedian spoke to Breakfast about the process of writing his memoir, Life of Dai.
The comedian and author told Breakfast being diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer “was huge” for him. (Source: Breakfast)
He shared that during the collaborative writing of the book with Jaquie Brown he was undergoing “up to my 20th round of chemotherapy”.
“It was pretty tough because I was feeling rubbish,” he said at the time.
The comedian also revealed he felt angered by the diagnosis, and questioned “why me?”
“And now I had cancer, and I was so angry about it. I did think, Why me? What have I done to deserve this? People talk about fairness. ‘It’s not fair; I’m a good person, I recycle, why is bad sh** happening to me? Why do I have cancer?’ But fairness doesn’t exist in the universe; it’s a human creation,” an extract from the book read.
