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Cape Town - Celebrated South African singer and songwriter Johnny Clegg has announced that he has completed his third round of chemotherapy after his pancreatic cancer returned last year.
“Three weeks ago my third six-month chemo cycle finished,” Johnny wrote in a post on his Facebook Page on Wednesday.
In the post the Kilimanjaro hitmaker, who has survived pancreatic cancer twice before, writes about having to deal with the sobering news that the cancer had reared its ugly head again.
“The cancer re-emerged again with a high tumour count as well as lesions in my lungs. This moved my level from stage 2 to stage 4.”
Johnny (65) says one small lesion in the right upper lung is still slightly active and “will probably have to be removed by radiation treatment. I expect this to be an on-going challenge.”
He was first diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer in April 2015 and it went into remission later that year.
“I had a seven-hour Whipple operation removing half my pancreas, my gall bladder, bile duct, duodenum and half my stomach. Six weeks later I went onto a six-month chemotherapy regimen (Gemcitabine) and at the end of November 2015 I was pronounced in remission,” he reveals in the post.
The cancer returned in August 2016, and after another six months of chemo it went into remission again in February last year.
His latest diagnosis interrupted his Final Journey tour, which was ironically organised as a way to bid farewell to his fans while in good health, following news of his remission for the second time.
But the Grammy-nominated singer is set to continue his tour after the good news.
“I’ll recommence the worldwide Final Journey concerts for some of the territories abandoned last year due to the health issue, starting with Mauritius and then Zimbabwe.”
While French fans will have to wait their turn until 2019 as Johnny waits for a further prognosis related to his lungs, the world-renowned musician says he’ll spend a week in the country promoting his new album, King of Time, set to be released in September.
