The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer a second time after a 2017 brush with lung cancer. The musician, who’s again “[come] through with the all-clear” health-wise, battled the disease during the pandemic-related quarantine.
It’s not been made public exactly where Wood’s latest malignancy was located, but the cancer was small-cell or carcinoma of the type most often found in the lung or sometimes elsewhere in the body. Regardless, the guitarist appeared to be in good spirits now that he’s overcome the serious ailment an additional time.
“I’ve had cancer two different ways now,” the 73-year-old rocker shared with The Sun this week (April 25). “I had lung cancer in 2017, and I had small-cell more recently that I fought in the last lockdown.”
Wood stayed upbeat thanks to his faith in a “higher power,” his belief in a guiding divinity that the musician still uses in much the same way he used during his recovery from alcohol and substance abuse while attending meetings with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
“I’m going through a lot of problems now,” Wood also shared with The Sun, “but throughout my recovery, you have to let it go. And when you hand the outcome over to your higher power, that is a magic thing. That brings you back to the (AA and NA’s) Serenity Prayer: ‘Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.’ That’s incredible. What will be will be, it’s nothing to do with me. All I can do is stay positive in my attitude, be strong and fight it, and the rest is up to my higher power.”
In the past, Wood attributed his lung cancer to the “25 to 30 cigarettes a day for 50-odd years” habit that he gave up in 2016. The musician also had to undergo an operation that removed part of his lung before he was declared cancer-free in that instance in 2018.
