Wilko Johnson, known as former Dr Feelgood guitarist and mute royal executioner Ilyn Payne from HBO fantasy TV series ‘Game of Thrones’, has announced he has been ‘cured’ of cancer at the Q Awards in London on Wednesday afternoon.
After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2013, Johnson refused to undergo chemotherapy and wished to let the disease progress without intense treatment.
However, according to NME, in April of this year, Johnson underwent surgical operation in which a tumour was removed from his body as well as his pancreas, spleen and part of his stomach. In addition, Independent reports that ‘Johnson’s operation also involved the removal of his small and large intestines and the removal and reconstruction of blood vessels relating to the liver.’
Accepting the Icon honour at the Q Awards, Johnson said:
“It was an 11-hour operation. This tumour weighed 3kg – that’s the size of a baby. Anyway, they got it all. They cured me.”
The musician paid tribute to his cancer specialist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge:
“He runs all the tests again and he says they think that they can do it and they did it, man. They took this tumour out of me.”
In 2013, after discovering his diagnosis, the guitarist went on his UK “farewell tour” and recorded an album with The Who’s Roger Daltrey titled ‘Going Back Home’.
“I thought that was going to be the last thing I ever did,” he told BBC News entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson after the ceremony on Wednesday.
In June 2013 Johnson told The Telegraph: “It makes you feel alive to be told that you’re going to die. How many years ago did I last feel like that? The ecstasy of youth, the joy of existence. I have felt like that again.”
In conclusion, Johnson said:
“Now I’m recuperating and hoping to regain my strength completely soon and go back on the road and the moral of the story is you never know what’s going to happen.”
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