Vic Reeves living with brain tumour doctors 'can't remove'
The iconic comedian was left with life-changing symptoms after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, including hearing loss.
Comedy icon Vic Reeves is still living with a brain tumour that doctors “can’t remove”, and it has left him with life-changing symptoms. One half of the hilarious double act Vic and Bob, Vic – real name Jim Moir – was diagnosed with an inoperable vestibular schwannoma, also known as an acoustic neuroma.
Though it is benign and not cancerous, the tumour has left him completely deaf in one ear. He said on the Adam Buxton Podcast: “It’s benign. They can’t remove it. They can shrink it or they can just leave it and keep an eye on it, and that’s what they’re doing.
“I would rather hear than not, but this happened, so you just get on with it, don’t you?”
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Vic, 66, admitted: “I’ve got used to it. I like going out bird watching and I never know where the birds are. I’ve gone 100% deaf in the left ear, and it will never come back.”
Speaking in 2021, Vic said the tumour was the “size of a grape” and meant he has had to “throw away all my stereo LPs”.
In good spirits, he joked: “It’s dead, absolutely, completely gone. I'm living with deafness. Can you imagine a life without stereo records? All I've got left is Frank Ifield on mono!"
The star told Radio Times: “My hearing just went off. I went to see the specialist and asked, ‘So will it come back?’ He said ‘No, you’re deaf forever.’’
His doctor was shocked by the star’s “blasé” reaction to the news, but insisted it was because he comes from a “stoical generation”.
The comedy icon also suffers from tinnitus, which he drowns out with music.
Acoustic neuromas start in the nerve connecting the brain to the ear. They’re rare, and don’t spread to other parts of the body.
Vic undergoes regular MRI scans to keep an eye on the tumour.
