Veteran pop rock singer John Farnham, 73, has been diagnosed with cancer and will have urgent surgery in a Melbourne hospital.
“We have recently discovered that John has a cancerous growth,” his family, including wife Jill, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“He has been admitted to hospital this morning for surgery and ongoing treatment.”
In a separate statement provided by his family, Farnham said a cancer diagnosis was something many people faced each day “and countless others have walked this path before me”.
“The one thing I know for sure is that we have the very best specialist healthcare professionals in Victoria and we can all be grateful for that. I know I am.”
The family has requested privacy.
Today show entertainment editor Richard Wilkins said Farnham was in hospital on Tuesday morning to have a malignant tumour removed.
“He is getting prepped as we speak,” he said.
“He is apparently cracking jokes with the doctors.”
The cancer scare comes three years after Farnham was hospitalised with a severe kidney infection.
The music powerhouse previously said the health scare served as a wake-up call and prompted him to quit smoking, according to News Corp.
Farnham sang his way into Australian hearts as a fresh-faced teenager in the 1960s but had faded into near-obscurity before Whispering Jack shot him back to the top some 20 years later.
The 1986 album produced one of the nation’s best-known anthems, You’re the Voice, and propelled Farnham to hero status. He followed up Whispering Jack with his chart-topping albums Age of Reason (1988) and Chain Reaction (1990).
Farnham was born in 1949 in Dagenham, England. Aged 10, he emigrated to Australia with his family, and settled in Melbourne.
-with AAP
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