Heavy/ABC "Dancing with the Stars" news.
A “Dancing With the Stars” shared a scary health diagnosis with fans. In an April 26, 2024 social media post, DWTS season 32 alum Harry Jowsey revealed that he was diagnosed with skin cancer at age 26.
The “Too Hot to Handle” star also issued a warning to fans with the hopes of saving at least one person from what he is now going through.
Jowsey was partnered with DWTS pro dancer Rylee Arnold on the 32nd season of “Dancing With the Stars” last fall. The duo recently wrapped the DWTS Live Tour with several other pro dancers.
Here’s what you need to know:
Harry Jowsey Urged Fans to Get Their Skin Checked
Jowsey is known for his light-hearted TikTok videos, sometimes with his DWTS partner Rylee Arnold. But on April 26, he got serious as he talked to his fans about cancer. Jowsey was dressed down in a ripped green hoodie as he delivered his unexpected health news.
“There isn’t really an easy way to say this,” Jowsey told his 5 million TikTok followers. “Last week I went to a dermatologist to get my skin checked and they found some skin cancer on me.”
“I’m gonna be all good, everything’s going to be okay,” the reality star continued. “But I just wanted to make this post to let you know that summer’s around the corner. Please wear sunscreen. Please go get your skin checked.”
Jowsey shared that his doctor found a cancerous mole on his shoulder during his skin check.
“If you’re freckly little frog like me, go get a mole map and get your body checked. Because you never know,” he said in his video. “I’ve had this on my shoulder for like a year or two and I had no idea
Jowsey added that everyone should “skin checked, wear your sunscreen and be a little bit more responsible” out in the sun. “Because that’s what I gotta do now, and it’s very scary,” he added.
Jowsey’s post received well wishes and comments from concerned fans.
“So glad you’re okay 🫶🏼 sending all the love!!!” wrote his DWTS partner Rylee Arnold.
Fellow DWTS season 32 celeb Ariana Madix also posted a comment as she recalled her own past with skin cancer. “melanoma siblings 💖,” the “Vanderpump Rules” star wrote. “so scary but really glad you are ok and yes sunscreen so important and skin checks.”
Other DWTS Stars Have Been Diagnosed With Skin Cancer
In October 2018, Madix had a scary ordeal with skin cancer. The DWTS finalist spoke out in an interview with the Skin Cancer Foundation to explain that there was a mole on her body that she noticed looked different but ignored.
“I had noticed it a handful of years before getting to the doctor,” Madix admitted. “Then I sometimes got DMs from fans saying that they had noticed it, or that they were a dermatologist and it worried them.”
The mole was removed by a dermatologist and Madix was diagnosed with melanoma. According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma is one of the most dangerous types of skin cancer because it is “more likely to spread to other parts of the body.”
After her biopsy came back positive for melanoma, Madix underwent surgery because the area was close to lymph nodes. Madix, who still has a visible scar on her chest, told Entertainment Tonight in 2019 that she continued to have follow-ups with a specialist every six months. “Because once you have [skin cancer], it’s much easier to have it again or have it throughout your life especially because I’m young,” she said. “It’s going to be an ongoing thing.”
DWTS pro dancer Witney Carson was also diagnosed with melanoma just a few weeks before she started on the ABC dancing show. Carson had two surgeries to remove melanoma in 2014.
“They took an inch diameter around the mole on my foot as well as all of my lymph nodes in my left hip,” Carson told People magazine in an interview. “It was just spreading so quickly, and they had to get rid of the lymph nodes and there was lots of healing time. I think I took six weeks and then I went straight to ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ My foot was wrapped. I still had stitches in it.”
Carson, who was just 19 at the time, attributed her cancer to past use of tanning beds.
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