Newstalk’s Down To Business presenter Bobby Kerr is urging men in Ireland to get checked for cancer after he revealed he was recently diagnosed with the disease.

The Insomnia Coffee Company chairman announced on-air today that he will be taking time off in the coming weeks to receive treatment for head and neck cancer.

Having helped raise funds to support cancer charities in the past, Bobby never thought he would become one of the 35,000 Irish people who are told they have cancer every year.

“I have a very serious disease. It’s been caught early. It’s only in one place and because it’s been caught early my chances of actually beating this increases incrementally,” he told listeners.

As November is men’s cancer awareness month, Bobby called on others to get checked: “Why am I telling you this, what you’d consider a very personal and private piece of news? The reason’s simple: It’s Movember, get yourselves checked out. I did.”

The presenter and former Dragon remains positive about the future and plans to return to the airwaves in the New Year: “I’ve always considered myself a glass half-full kind of person and I believe life is for living.”

He also went on to thank his family, friends and colleagues - in particular his wife Mary and his four daughters for helping him through: “I’m blissfully co-habiting with five loving females – that’s my secret weapon in beating this.”

Bobby Kerr has presented Down To Business – Newstalk’s flagship weekend business show - for the past six years, reaching over 100,000 listeners every week, according to the latest JNLR figures released last month.

You can listen to Bobby's announcement in full below: