Riverdance star Michael Flatley has said that his cancer diagnosis made him "quickly realise that you come into this world on your own and you leave on your own."
The professional dancer, musician and sometimes actor was treated for a malignant melanoma in 2003 and in In January 2023, he underwent surgery after diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer.
Speaking on Friday's Late Late Show, the 65-year-old said, "I feel great but I think having positive mental attitude always helps. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy.
"Getting the news that you have cancer is tough, it’s not easy to take in but I’m married to the greatest girl in the world who looks after me and believe in me and stood beside me.
"I had prepared myself for the whole ordeal but I really wasn’t 100% prepared when the time came.
"It was all fine until I got on the trolley and the nurses went to get the anaesthesia and when you’re lying on that gurney in that freezing cold hallway staring up at that white ceiling, you quickly realise that you come into this world on your own and you leave on your own.
"I started to think have I done enough, have I given enough of myself to people. Did I go after everything I said I would?"
He added, "My family is everything to me. What if I didn’t come out the other side? I felt confident and my surgeon was great but there’s a chance I won’t come out of this. I can’t explain the love I have for my wife and son and the love I have for Ireland and the Irish people and the love I have for life."
Flatley, who has just launched his new whiskey, Flatley Whiskey, also recalled the very first performance of Riverdance at the Eurovision Song Contest in April 1994 at The Point in Dublin.
"It was fabulous feeling," he said. "There was just something in the air that night and I was just so blessed and honoured to have a chance to make my dream come true and finally get to create the dance I always wanted to dance and I was blessed to have a beautiful dance partner in Jean Butler and Bill Whelan is the most gifted composer.
"For me, the dance troupe, they were all champion dancers, side by side with me and they believed in me when few others didn't. I love them all, I loved them then and I still love them now,
"No one will know how hard we worked for that moment. I suppose it’s easy when you look back at that moment and it was great but the amount of hours and drilling and practise it took to get to that level . . . I was like a loaded slingshot; I couldn’t wait to get out on that stage.
Michael Flatley 🤝 Matt Molloy#LateLate pic.twitter.com/AutSO264Ec
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"Thirty years later and we’re still talking about it because of that wonderful troupe of dancers. I love them all."
His late mother was in the audience that night in The Point and Flatley said his success meant everything to her.
"God rest her soul. After that performance, I came walking down the corridor to what I guess was the green room and my mother was there and she was crying," he recalled.
"My mother was usually very composed and you’d never see her reacting like that but the fact that she was there that night meant the world to me. She finally realised that I had fulfilled my dream."
"My parents moved to the United States in 1947 with nothing, just a belief in themselves, they never took a penny from the US government.
"We were taught to work seven days like them and my father was my hero, this big strong Sligo man. my mother was from Carlow and they gave up their whole lives for us.
"My father was in construction and my brother and I worked alongside him, digging foundations and swinging sledgehammers. I followed my dream. I was in the ditch but I never forgot my dream."
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