John Cena Reveals He Was Diagnosed With Skin Cancer in the Past
John Cena is opening up about a diagnosis.
The 47-year-old wrestler-turned-movie star partnered with Neutrogena for their “Sunscreen You Can’t See” campaign.
“I grew up in a small town next to Newburyport and Salisbury Beach. The Massholes call it the North Shore,” the explained to People of his experience with skincare and “never” wearing sunscreen.
“Some of my earliest memories of summer are of small carnivals and people walking the beachside.”
“My mom [Carol] raised five boys and I’m pretty sure she just wanted to just keep us alive and healthy. She had her hands full for sure, so I certainly do not blame her. And me being born in ’77, this was kind of all new knowledge.”
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“I was stubborn. I didn’t want to have a routine and I also thought the problem would never reach me. And it’s one of those things where I had a ton of exposure with minimal protection and it caught up with me,” he explained.
“It wasn’t until I went to a dermatologist and got a skin checkup and had a cancerous spot removed from my right pec,” he went on to reveal, adding that he got a call saying: “You got to come back in.”
“I was very lucky to have a great dermatologist who kind of, I guess for lack of a better term, held me by the hand and let me know that I wasn’t alone. The stats on this are overwhelming, but as much as I learn about them, those numbers don’t mean anything. I think the best way to hammer home a point is human-to-human connection. And I as a human can tell you: Man, that phone call’s not what you want to get because it is unpredictable and you don’t know how bad it’s going to be.”
“A year later I went back and had another spot removed close to my right shoulder. It shows up like a white polka dot on the side of my chest and on my shoulder. If you watch WWE, you’ll be able to see them,” John went on to say.
“I’m at a great space in my life where that’s now important to me. And I’m so grateful to be able to dodge those two bullets, but I wear them as a reminder of, ‘Hey man, you need to take the extra few seconds to protect yourself every day.’”
He also revealed that Neutrogena had no idea.
“The crazy thing is that’s not why Neutrogena came to me in the first place,” he said of the prior skin cancer scare.
“Neutrogena came to me because they developed this Ultra Sheer sunscreen that goes on easily and is invisible and they wanted somebody who the world knows as invisible,” he said, referring to his “You Can’t See Me” running joke from wrestling.
“They were like, ‘Hey, would you mind leaning into the “You Can’t See Me” joke?’ And I’m like, ‘Would I?!’ I’m already doing it anyway and the world kind of understands it. I’m in Budapest, and I walk the streets here and people put their hands in front of their face. So it’s something that has global reach. And I really appreciate Neutrogena wanting to lean into it. The spots are very funny, and if you can make people laugh and send a message at the same time, that’s great.”
“If you’re out there and you brush your teeth, at a young age you learned that going to the dentist when your teeth are in bad shape is bad because it’s painful. The same thing will happen if you don’t take care of your skin, and it’s actually easier than brushing your teeth. Because it’s not something you should exercise to just make you look more beautiful. It’s something you should exercise to allow you to be who you are for a longer period of time. We all love to get out there on a sunny day and enjoy what the world has to offer. Gosh, just take that one extra step and brush your teeth and put on some Neutrogena Ultra Sheer, and you’ll be able to get a lot more days of doing that,” he advised.
John Cena also has an exciting project heading to theaters, once thought to be scrapped.
Watch the campaign…