Twitch star, Michigan native Ninja shares skin cancer diagnosis
(CBS DETROIT) - Michigan native Tyler Blevins, known by his Twitch name "Ninja," shared his skin cancer diagnosis on Tuesday.
The popular 32-year-old streamer, who has 19 million followers on Twitch, shared his diagnosis on X, formerly known as Twitter.
His dermatologist determined that he had melanoma after removing a mole from the bottom of his foot during an annual skin check.
"Alright I'm still in a bit of shock but want to keep you all updated," Ninja said in the social media post. "A few weeks ago I went in to a dermatologist for an annual skin/mole check that Jess proactively scheduled for me. There was a mole on the bottom of my foot that they wanted to remove just to be careful. It came back as melanoma, but they are optimistic that we caught it in the early stages."
Ninja also said that another dark spot appeared near where the initial mole had been removed.
"I had another dark spot appear near it, so today they biopsied that and removed a larger area around the melanoma with the hopes that under the microscope they will see clear non-melanoma edges and we will know we got it," said Ninja in the post.
The Twitch streamer said he is glad to have found this early but wants people to use it as a PSA.
His wife also discussed the diagnosis in a social media post. "Woke up today like this was all a dream," said Jessica Blevins. "The silver lining in this is that @Ninja has a huge platform that we can raise awareness on. I also want to note that the mole on the bottom of his foot had no strange signs besides being a little darker brown. Zero symptoms."
Ninja was born in Taylor, and although he moved when he was young, he became a Detroit Lions fan and has been seen at games.
The Detroit Lions reacted to the diagnosis in a social media post and said, "Thinking of you @Ninja, get well soon."