Actor Taye Diggs On How Losing His Parents To Cancer Changed His Life

• Actor Taye Diggs has opened up about losing both his parents to cancer. 
• He is advocating for early cancer detection and encouraging others to take charge of their health. 
• Diggs discusses how his experience with his parents has affected his approach to health and fatherhood. 

Actor Taye Diggs is best-known for his roles on TV shows like “All American” and “Private Practice,” and films like “Rent” and “The Best Man.”

Now, he’s talking about his personal experience with cancer and how early detection can make all the difference. 

“It’s kind of positive and negative … positive in that I want to make people aware, negative in that I have a personal connection to cancer,” Diggs told Healthline. 

Diggs is raising cancer awareness and encouraging people to take control of their own health. 

“Both my parents passed from various cancers and being a father, and loving being a father, I want to make sure that I spend as much time with him as possible and stick around here for as long as I can, and taking this early detection blood test for cancer was something that allowed me to just have peace of mind, knowing that I was kind of in the driver’s seat,” said Diggs. 

The actor recently paired with Cancerguard, a blood test for people ages 50 or older that helps detect more than 50 types and subtypes of cancer before symptoms appear. 

“It’s not a diagnosis, but it just lets you know if you should go and take a few more steps further just to see what other specific tests you should take,” noted Diggs. 

Healthline spoke with Diggs about his loss and how it has changed his approach to his own health and fatherhood. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Diggs values life, health more than ever

Diggs explained that his experience with his parents’ cancer was a wake-up call. He lost his mother to breast cancer and his stepfather to colon cancer. 

“It almost forces you to look at things differently. [It] makes me value life and health way more than I did before,” he said. 

He went on to say that he has been lucky with his health, and that made him feel invincible. Now he has seen that “bad” things can happen, and that opened his eyes. Diggs said that his son helps push him to go to the doctor and take care of his health. 

“It gives you kind of a new perspective on life and health and sticking around. When you have people that you care about, you want to be around for them,” he said. 

“So for me, after that, it’s become easy to do things like take early detective blood tests for cancer. It’s all of that, watching my [diet], exercising, all that stuff. Living is a luxury. And if, and if we can do everything we can, we should.” 

Losing his parents changed his approach to fatherhood

Diggs told Healthline about his 17-year-old son, Walker, and how the experience of losing his parents affected his approach to fatherhood. 

“I can’t help but just be aware. I realize now life doesn’t last forever. I realized the importance of parenting. I realized the importance of a solid, healthy, and honest relationship,” Diggs said. 

“When I did lose my mother, that was a really tough blow. And when you’re in the midst of something like that, you don’t want to see any positives. I mean, I wouldn’t say I would want it to happen again, but I’m definitely a different person, and I’m definitely a better father, and I’m just more aware of who I am and what my relationships are.”

Why early cancer detection matters

According to a recent report by the American Cancer Society (ACS), early detection through screenings has significantly improved the survival rates for many cancers, including: 

• breast
• cervical
• colorectal
• prostate
• lung

“We have better screening and better understanding of cancer prevention,” Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD, surgical oncologist, chief of medicine, and director of the Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Program at Providence Saint John’s Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, CA, told Healthline in an earlier interview. 

Research has shown that when cancer is detected early, treatment is more effective and survival rates improve dramatically. 

“Mortality has everything to do with when you find the cancer in its growth trajectory,” Arif Kamal, MD, chief patient officer for the American Cancer Society, told Healthline in an earlier interview. 

The ACS points out that this is why getting regular cancer screenings is so important.