Hank Green, veteran YouTube star, reveals he has blood cancer

Hank Green, veteran YouTube star, revealed that he has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer, on Friday, May 19th, 2023.

In the 13-minute video, the SciShow host spoke candidly about his diagnosis, and how he discovered it.

“I noticed that my lymph nodes were big. I talked to my doctor. She said, ‘It’s probably nothing. We’ll send you in for an ultrasound.’ I got an ultrasound, and the tech in the ultrasound room was like, ‘I’m going to go get a doctor.’ That’s not what you want to have happened,” he continued.

Green, 43, then added that the “good news [and] bad news” of his cancer diagnosis is that it’s “one of the most treatable cancers. It responds very well to treatment. The goal is cure.”

He went on to explain that one of his friends went through the same condition and has been doing well.

He added that he will be starting chemotherapy “very soon” but he’s “not really looking forward" to it. But he’s “looking forward to starting on the path” and grateful to have a strong support system around him.

Green plans to undergo four months of chemotherapy, which he called a “fairly well known” treatment, “if unpleasant.”

Hank, who is one half of the vlogbrothers, co-hosts the channel with elder brother and Fault in Our Stars author, John Green.

The brothers begin their video like a conversation to one another. Hank joked of his very ‘Hank Green thought’, “I said this to you already, John, I said, ‘you know, this is the best time so far in human history to get lymphoma.’”

Of his brother’s ‘very John Green thought’ he added, “You said, ‘well, a year from now would’ve been better.’”

Hank also touched upon processing the news and that he is “wrestling with the reality of” being seen as someone “struggling” instead of as a “goofy science guy.”

Hank, who is the father of son Orin with wife Katherine Green, noted, “This is now part of how people are going to imagine me.”

He continued, “It’s, like, an identity that I’m having thrust upon me, which happens to people all the time. And it’s totally the thing that I will get over.”

John, 45, left a touching comment for his brother. “I love you. We all love you. You’ve got this.”