Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson says beating cancer has been a "life enhancing" experience.

Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson

The 56-year-old rocker believes being given the all-clear of the disease in May following several weeks of chemotherapy has given him a new lease of life.

Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the O2 Silver Clef Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, he said: "Once I got through it, I just wanted to get on with life, and stop wasting time. I now have less time for people who waste my time. It's not that I'm impatient, I just think now that there are more important things to do than waste my time on people who are just wasting my time, there are more important things really. That's it really, not a great deal has changed. I didn't have any great religious experience as a result of it."

While the 'Run to the Hills' singer insisted the health scare didn't provoke a "religious experience," he admitted he is now a changed man as a result of the illness and wants to make the most of the time he has left.

He explained: "The one thing about coming back from something (an illness) where someone sits you down and tells you that you've got a 60/40 chance or survival, they didn't say that, they actually said your chances are quite good. So I went and Googled what my chances were and they were 60/40. Then when the results of the biopsy came back the chances were 80/20, I thought, 'Well that's even better.' So I thought I'd crack on and get on with it as there's only two possible outcomes, there's no point winging about it that's what it is.

"The one thing I'd like to say is that the treatment I got was astonishing, the nurses and the doctors (in the UK) were unbelievable."