When a bet can save your life. It’s unusual to see Ryan Reynolds serious. The actor loves to show himself joking and surprise the public even in the everyday life that he shows on social media. In the latest video posted on Instagram, however, together with his friend Rob McElhenney, Reynolds does not lose his irony but the message is profound. He says he lost a bet and paid a pledge by undergoing a colonoscopy. A joke that lasted until he had to come to terms with reality: from the exam the actor discovered that he had an octopus, which was fortunately removed in time, saving his life.
“We are very competitive”, say the two friends in the video in which they tell what happened, “and last year we made a bet”. The actor has decided to take the cameras to the hospital where he actually went to do the diagnostic test and document the medical path: he shows himself, together with McElhenney, after undergoing colonoscopy under anesthesia and the gastroenterologist, Jonathan LaPook, communicates the discovery of a small polyp, which was later removed. The actor’s doctor claims the procedure may have saved his life.
The video, which is part of the campaign Lead From Behind, conducted by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance to create information on the prevention of colon cancer, is used by the 45-year-old actor, three times father and husband of Blake Lively, precisely to raise awareness on the issue. «The exam itself and the preparation were painless – he said -, but the discomfort of being filmed and then sharing everything made the experience difficult. Rob and I did it because we want this life-saving procedure to be clearer and less stigmatized. ‘