Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

"I caught it early, I’m incredibly lucky": Singer Brian Kennedy reveals he has cancer

Kennedy said that tests had shown the cancer hadn’t spread to his other organs and that it had been caught early.

SINGER-SONGWRITER BRIAN Kennedy has revealed he has been diagnosed with rectal cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.

Speaking exclusively to Matt Cooper on Today FM’s The Last Word this evening, Kennedy revealed he had been undergoing radiation just hours beforehand.

“What I have is called rectal cancer. I said to my doctor ‘could I get a more embarrassing version of this disease – cancer in my bum, really?’ but at the same time he immediately pointed out that there are a lot of worse places to get this disease.

“This time around in July, one night, I suddenly had a lot of blood and I thought to myself that’s not normal. I took myself to the doctor the next day and he gave me a full rectal exam. He showed me his finger and said ‘look that’s what I want to see; completely clear you are absolutely fine there is nothing wrong with you.’”

Although there were no other symptoms, Kennedy told Cooper that due to his eldest brother being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it had been in the back of his mind, so he requested a further examination in the form of a colonoscopy.

I had some sedation and when coming around on the bed the doctor told me I had a tumour in my rectum…I nearly died. I was lying on that bed thinking ‘I have a tumour.”

Early catch

Kennedy said that tests had shown the cancer hadn’t spread to his other organs and that it had been caught early.

This is really important which is why I’m on your show today…If you have even a grain of doubt, just get it checked. I went to my GP he gave me a clean bill of health and I wasn’t. I could have gone home happy, or gone on tour and a year later, or two years later, that tumour would have grown and grown – I caught it early.

“I’m incredibly lucky.”

The singer went on to say that his treatment is scheduled to be finished by the end of September, ahead of a gig in Dublin’s Vicar Street.

“The gigs are everything. I’m looking forward to seeing the audience. This concert in Vicar Street is called Better Man and I’m hoping by 13 October, I am a better man.”

Read: Council says first phase of Priory Hall apartments have been fully refurbished

Read: The Apple ruling has ruined some weekend plans for some Oireachtas workers

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
44 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paulco
    Favourite Paulco
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 3:41 AM

    He will make the announcement but the decision is not his to make.

    194
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ordinary Bloke
    Favourite Ordinary Bloke
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:06 AM

    @Paulco: absolutely, the questions for the deep powers in DC is can we juice him up for another four years and who else (certainly not Kamala) can we run. So, do we continue to prop him up and continue to bury this Hunter Biden mess (and whatever classified docs the FBI conveniently found in Joe’s Delaware house a few months ago) or do we run another candidate, like a Gavin Newsom, perhaps. Sure, they’ll let him to have his harmless little St Patrick’s day week in the middle of April, but no, the decision to run isn’t his.

    155
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Gill
    Favourite Stephen Gill
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:22 AM

    @Ordinary Bloke: Early with the conspiracy word salad today, Yuri.

    108
    See 5 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ordinary Bloke
    Favourite Ordinary Bloke
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:31 AM

    @Stephen Gill: it’s a bit early to be expressing your paranoia sunshine.

    76
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Gill
    Favourite Stephen Gill
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:43 AM

    @Ordinary Bloke: Hiding your identity is a major symptom of paranoia. I ain’t hiding. You are. Show some honesty change your name to Paranoid bloke!

    50
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ordinary Bloke
    Favourite Ordinary Bloke
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:54 AM

    @Stephen Gill: God forbid, someone expresses an opinion on Ukraine, or in this case US politics, that’s contrary to your own, and you automatically jump to a conclusion that I’m some Russian paid troll, or whatever. That really says a lot about your grasp of reality. Go out, enjoy yourself, it’s a lovely Saturday.

    102
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Gill
    Favourite Stephen Gill
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 3:47 PM

    @Ordinary Bloke: They say if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then it’s a duck. A paranoid pro-Russian, one at that.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clodagh Ni Riain
    Favourite Clodagh Ni Riain
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:08 PM

    @Ordinary Bloke: Why not Kamala? Honestly wondering.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damien Leen
    Favourite Damien Leen
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 4:56 AM

    He’ll make an announcement, if he doesn’t forget to…

    180
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute all devices
    Favourite all devices
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 6:49 AM

    Well, after listening to Joe’s speech in Ballina it seems Sammy Wilson was on to something regarding Bidens attitude to England at least. Bit of a mask slipping on that one. I had no great problem with the Ballina/ Knock/ Castlebar element of his visit as that was more an expression of his personal relationship with that part of the country. To be fair, Ballina put on some show and I thought the Mayor done a great job of the introduction.
    Couple that with the farce of his appearance in NI which has only alienated groups of people he professes to want to encourage.
    If there was ever a time for a person of international importance to get really stuck in and act as an honest broker to help break the impass in NI it was now. Mr President however squandered that opportunity in favour of ‘stage Irish paddywhackary’.
    I would suggest he has no great grasp of the intricate minefields that are Brexit/ NI/EU despite his and others claims to the opposite. And incase no one noticed the distinct lack of mention by either him or our own politicians on the hugh part US companies play in our economy, it’s with good reason.

    123
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jim O'Sullivan
    Favourite Jim O'Sullivan
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 8:50 AM

    o@all devices: you either live under a rock or have an agenda. “Sammy Wilson on tp something”. now that would be a spectacular surprise.

    107
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ordinary Bloke
    Favourite Ordinary Bloke
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 7:40 AM

    #kennedy2024

    79
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Gill
    Favourite Stephen Gill
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 3:50 PM

    @Ordinary Bloke: Says it all. Kennedy is a dangerous conspiracy theorist.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute FixoUZLA
    Favourite FixoUZLA
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 11:02 AM

    President Biden’s visit to Ireland was a great success , the sun is shining , people are happy , enjoy .

    79
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Derek O Gorman
    Favourite Derek O Gorman
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 9:15 AM

    Nice chap but really time to relax in the PJs Joe…is there any candidates under 70 to run in 200 million people

    77
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Maloney
    Favourite Paul Maloney
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 6:21 AM

    Did Eamon Ryan get chance to waffle aimlessly at the yanks?

    83
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Áine G
    Favourite Áine G
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 9:31 AM

    His past it, De Santis if he gets the Republican nomination @44 will eat his breakfast and come back for dinner.

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute KilkennyProud
    Favourite KilkennyProud
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 9:53 AM

    @Áine G: Only if Donald John Trump is persuaded not to run as a third party candidate in an last ditch attempt to delay prosecution and incarceration for his many crimes. Trump can destroy De Santos and the Republican Party before he leaves the stage and has shown every inclination to do so.

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute alan
    Favourite alan
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 11:05 AM

    @KilkennyProud: let’s hope he succeeds. The Stone Age doesn’t have the appeal it used to have. Except of course to the cavemen and women who support trump

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerry Campbell
    Favourite Gerry Campbell
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 9:04 AM

    Meanwhile,the sky news coverage of his departure last night was hilarious,the presenter and two guests bitching like three children who weren’t invited to a cool kids birthday party.It was gold,what a shower of deluded idiots.

    108
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tipper Irie
    Favourite Tipper Irie
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 9:28 AM

    @Gerry Campbell: oh dear, think we may actually have to look a lot closer to home to find the real deluded ones.

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute KilkennyProud
    Favourite KilkennyProud
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 9:56 AM

    @Tipper Irie: Yep – you don’t have to go to Sky News to find people bitching about a very successful visit that was a good news story for the country.

    78
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerry Campbell
    Favourite Gerry Campbell
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 10:27 AM

    @Tipper Irie: Yes but the actual lack of logic in supposed Journalists,if Biden went to France would the Germans be upset if he didn’t pop in to say Hi?

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Victor Kuss
    Favourite Victor Kuss
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 1:58 PM

    Enough of JB. A decent man, no doubt, a genuine democrat (small d) but surely time to bend to the natural ravages of ageing.He looked permanently bewildered during the Oirish jaunt.What day is it, where are we, who is she/he? The speeches were frankly embarrassing, a mixture of stuttering green -tinted platitudes and clichés. Pipe and slippers beckon for this old guy. A second term? Please, no!

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Barry Hannigan
    Favourite Barry Hannigan
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 2:33 PM

    Biden has to stand if ‘yer man’ is going to seriously run again. I don’t see ‘ yer man’ having a serious chance of winning and as Biden is the only man who can beat him, Biden should stay in the race until ‘yer man’ drops out. If I were a U.S. democrat, I would use the debating/nomination season to introduce potential Democratic candidates for the Presidency. If ‘ yer man’ is doing badly, then Joe Biden should drop out. I think that Biden, as Presidents go, has been a seriously good and underetimated President. Just saying!!!!!

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Ryan
    Favourite Paul Ryan
    Report
    Apr 16th 2023, 11:20 AM

    @Barry Hannigan: totally agree. Nothing senile or anything like it about JB . He spoke articulately where required. Do not mistake his ‘folksy’ style of delivery for sometime else! Otherwise you fall into the Sky News and Fox News trap!

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paulco
    Favourite Paulco
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 1:54 PM

    Kilkenny Proud commenting above has no idea how corrupt American politics is. Both Republicans and Democrats amass great personal wealth “serving the people”. They are in bed together and just put on a show for the folks. Almost like, I don’t know… FF/FG???

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute KilkennyProud
    Favourite KilkennyProud
    Report
    Apr 15th 2023, 2:41 PM

    @Paulco: Paulco above makes generalised and lazy minded comments about his opinions on corruption. If he/she has any proof to back up his/her accusations she/he should report it to the relevant authorities.

    10
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds