The gaming community was amazed after hearing the news of Ninja – real name Tyler Blevins -, Twitch’s number one streamer, who announced last Tuesday, March 26, that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer. The content creator himself announced it through his X account (former Twitter), in a heartbreaking publication that left his more than six million followers on the social network shocked.
“I’m still a little shocked, but I want to keep you all up to date,” the content creator began, explaining how it all started. “A few weeks ago I went to a dermatologist for an annual skin and mole checkup,” he says, saying that he went to the doctor after his wife, Jessica, scheduled him for a checkup.
“There was a mole on the bottom of my foot that I wanted to remove, just to be careful. He came back as melanoma, but they are optimistic, since they detected it in the early stages,” she explains, confidently.
Melanoma is a skin cancer that begins in the skin’s pigment-producing cells (melanocytes). It is related to exposure to ultraviolet light of the type generated by the sun, tanning beds, and other sources. Cutaneous melanoma constitutes between 4 and 10% of the types of cancer diagnosed in Spain.
“I had another dark spot appear nearby, so today they did a biopsy and removed a larger area around the melanoma in the hopes that under the microscope they will see clear edges that are not melanoma and we will know we have it.”
For now, the streamer has not given more details about his possible treatment or results of his illness. He now only hopes to recover soon due to his quick diagnosis, but by announcing his diagnosis publicly he hopes that others will take seriously having dermatological check-ups.
Blevins, 32, is the number 1 streamer on the platform, but he also has a record 19 million followers on Twitch, where he first joined in 2011 and became a fixture, mainly for games of the popular Fortnite game. The American is also a recognized character outside the realm of video games, especially appearing in season 2 of The Masked Singer.
