He made the claim to an interviewer who had previously been diagnosed with cancer.
Noel Edmonds appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show and refused to back down on comments about cancer he made on Twitter back in 2016, despite having previously been diagnosed with prostate cancer himself.
Derbyshire – who was also diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 – asked if he regretted tweeting a cancer survivor to ask if they thought their negative attitude could have caused the disease.
But Edmonds replied: “I regret the fact he didn’t answer the question. It is a scientific fact that negative energy causes disease and negative thoughts are part of that process. It changes the outcome and millions of doctors and scientists will tell you that.”
Noel Edmonds: 'I don't regret telling cancer survivor that his ill-health could be caused by his negative attitude. It's a scientific fact.' pic.twitter.com/PHnpIN9KqC
— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) March 13, 2018
When then pushed on if what he had tweeted was a “horrible thing to say”, he said: “No because I asked him a perfectly reasonable question.”
Victoria then asked: “Do you think all cancers can be caused by negative attitudes?”
He replied “no,” adding he is “not a doctor”, prompting Victoria to respond: “Exactly.”
“Sorry the point your making is?” Noel asked her. “I don’t understand the link you’re making. I wasn’t doing a diagnosis. I was asking a question. We need to explore a lot more about the energy of the human body.”
And, as you can imagine, people went in on him on social media for the comments.
As a cancer survivor, who lost their father to cancer too, I'm appalled to learn that Noel Edmonds is an unrepentent, victim-blaming, snake-oil salesman. (Apparently old news. But new to me.) #VictoriaLIVE #FB
— Robb Masters (@robb_masters) March 13, 2018
A longitudinal study of 179 cancer patients in Australia found NO connection between positive thinking and health outcomes.
There is, however, a strong connection between Noel Edmonds and dangerous fucking nonsense. https://t.co/YQkMqxwoaH
— Patrick Strudwick (@PatrickStrud) March 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/scottsmith850/status/973496831824027650
Noel Edmonds is a loon. This kind of pseudo-scientific quackery is legitimately dangerous, and anyone promoting such nonsense should be rightly vilifed. https://t.co/796zRko7QK
— Ryan T. Brown 🔜 WASD (@Toadsanime) March 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/J_Alex_Blount/status/973497621988986881
https://twitter.com/michaelpct/status/973494780113113089
