SWANSEA: ‘Honour of my life’ — standing ovation as Kev Johns awarded honorary doctorate

Kev Johns brought Swansea Arena to its feet on Thursday, as the city’s best-loved entertainer was made an honorary doctor — with the therapists who helped him walk and talk again watching from the audience.

Swansea University awarded Kev Johns MBE an Honorary Doctor of Letters at its graduation ceremony, celebrating alongside hundreds of new graduates.

His speech left few dry eyes in the house. “Sharing the stage with you today has been the honour of my life,” he told the graduates. “Whatever I have done in the past, and whatever I will do in the future, nothing will match today — because you people are the best.”

The physiotherapists and speech therapists who supported his recovery were in the audience to hear him thank them, and the Arena answered his address with a standing ovation.

Kev has fought illness in public before: in 2023 he thanked the NHS after cancer treatment, vowing to make the show go on. He has been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer — and in February came a stroke, announced by Swansea City as the club wished “our very own Kev Johns” all the best, prompting tributes from fans who called him the voice of the stadium and part of the fabric of the city.

Friends rallied round. A fundraiser launched to support Kev and his wife Rosie — by his side “day and night” — while he was unable to work carried a promise Swansea has watched him keep: “We want Kev back doing what Kev does best — and he absolutely will be.”

By May he was back, cutting the ribbon at the new CK Foodstores in Bynea in an emotional first public appearance. Earlier this month came more welcome news: he will be part of the Grand’s panto this Christmas after all — returning virtually as the Dame in the Mirror in Snow White, a specially created digital role he called “the next best thing” to being on stage.

Reflecting after the ceremony, Kev said he had never been so proud of anything in his life, and that watching the young people collect their degrees and start their journey “was amazing”.

The university holds a personal place in his recovery too. “I’ve had cancer, and I’ve had a stroke, and so many of the wonderful nurses and people that have looked after me have trained at Swansea University,” he said, pointing to the university’s reach into Swansea life — from Technocamps to its connection with the Swans and the Taliesin theatre, where he has performed many times.

Born in Swansea in 1961 and raised in Plasmarl, Kev started out as a children’s entertainer and comedian — Clown Kev, to those with long memories.

He is best known for more than 30 years as the Grand’s panto dame, a run stretching back to 1992 — at the theatre he grew up watching panto in, which he has said still makes stepping out there feel like a dream come true.

The dame’s trade has its rules, fiercely kept: a make-up kit he says is bigger than his wife and daughters’ put together, and a firm belief that “you can’t be a Welsh dame unless you enjoy cockles and lava bread”. His stage maxim has carried him through three decades: “It might be your last show of the season, but for the audience, it’s their first.”

At Swansea City he is woven into matchday itself, serving as both club chaplain and the stadium announcer whose voice supporters know by heart — drawing on his ministerial background to provide pastoral support and represent the club at community and remembrance events.

His broadcasting years at The Wave and Swansea Sound made him a fixture of the city’s airwaves along the way.

The honours have stacked up: an MBE in 2013 for services to charity, and in 2022 the Honorary Freedom of the City of Swansea.

The university said the doctorate recognises his outstanding contribution to Welsh entertainment and community life, and his dedication to the city.

Swansea still gets to see him in a dress this year, just as he promised — beaming from the magic mirror when Snow White opens at the Grand this Christmas.