Ninja no longer has cancer, one week after telling fans that he had melanoma.
The Twitch streamer, whose real name is Tyler Blevins, posted on X on 26th March that he had been diagnosed following an annual dermatologist check-up where they biopsied a mole on his foot.
He said at the time, doctors were optimistic it had been caught in the early stages of cancer and urged his fans to use this experience to get annual skin checkups themselves.
Now, he has shared that the procedure to remove the mole and another nearby lesion was successful, meaning he no longer has melanoma.
Following both the news of his diagnosis and the all-clear, he was met with well-wishes and congratulations from his 6 million plus followers on X.
What is melanoma?
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that typically appears on skin regularly exposed to sunlight or UV light such as from tanning beds. It can also appear on other areas of skin, such as the soles of your feet, as it did for Blevins. Common signs of melanoma are unusually shaped moles that may change colour or grow bigger.
Many celebrities have shared past experiences with skin cancer, such as Hugh Jackman and Khloe Kardashian. Jackman has had several skin cancers removed over the years and uses his social media to promote the importance of protecting yourself in the sun and getting regular exams.
Sadly some celebrities have died from the disease, such as musicians Eva Cassidy and Bob Marley. Cassidy died from a melanoma that spread to her lungs and bones and reggae music legend Marley passed after ignoring his doctor’s advice about amputating his toe due to a melanoma under his toenail that spread to the rest of his body.
Who is Ninja?
Ninja had already been known in Esports circles for competing in Halo championships before 2017, which is when he decided to switch his focus to streaming. Beginning with the popular game PUBG, his audience began to grow but it wasn’t until he started playing Fortnite, which was becoming hugely popular, that his channel skyrocketed.
He was the first Twitch streamer to hit 3 million followers and became a mainstream celebrity in the process. He appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, competed in the Masked Singer and has even played Fortnite with rapper Drake. He was also part of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019.
For a while, he was considered the face of Twitch, and many credit him with boosting the popularity of the streaming platform. He strayed from the platform briefly, signing an exclusive deal with Microsoft in 2019 to only stream on their new platform, Mixer. This was short-lived, as Mixer folded in 2020 and merged with Facebook Gaming. He returned to Twitch exclusively for a while but now streams on multiple platforms, including YouTube.
His account currently sits at 19 million, and after making millions of dollars streaming, he’s since branched out into other creative outlets, such as his podcast, AFK w/ Ninja. He also appears to be launching his own chocolate milk brand called Nutcase Milk, which he promoted on X this week by asking his followers if they were ‘ready for his nut.’
