A Personal Message from Mike Peters
I am writing today, to let you all know that my Leukaemia (CLL), has relapsed and I have been admitted to The North Wales Cancer Centre for immediate treatment.
I have already started on a brand new chemotherapy regime and so I wanted you to know personally, that my life living with cancer is about to change for the foreseeable future.
My immediate aim is to get fit and well for The Gathering in January 2023.
We’ve had so many of our greatest shows in Llandudno and celebrated many important milestones (including one of the most emotional nights ever in 2006), when I took to the stage in my green camo jacket and was overcome by the love and affection shown to me, by all present.
This coming January will commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Gathering, an event that has come to represent all that we stand for – 30 years of Love Hope and Strength, 30 years of friendship and celebration and through music, helping each other to live life and stay strong.
I want you to know that I am going to beat this disease once more and be ready, willing and able to hit the stage at Venue Cymru on January 27th 2023.
Since being diagnosed with Pneumonia (after the last British Tour), the post-recovery period provided far greater challenges for me than I could ever have envisaged (although somehow I managed to find the strength to record the backing tracks for a new Alarm album…. I’ve even got my guitar with me on the ward just in case inspiration strikes!)
Since then, my twin conditions of Leukaemia and Pneumonia have ganged up inside me to wage a war amongst themselves that has pushed my body to it’s very limits.
Thanks to my wife, Jules’ endeavour with the health care system, I was admitted to hospital two weeks ago and the full extent of my problems were laid bare when an X-Ray showed I had a left lung full of blood fluid and a Leukaemia running out of control.
Over eight days on the hospital ward, I was able to release over 5 litres of fluid through a drain in my back which allowed me to breathe normally once more. I am now in the Cancer Centre ready take up this new challenge with Leukaemia and get the white blood count back under control.
It’s clear that the management of this dramatically changing health landscape is going to impact on my way of life, so I don’t want to make any rash decisions about the way forward right now, but I did want to bring you all up to speed and into the heart of what has been happening to me.
I am still alive and living, with a most amazingly close family around me. I also know I can count on the strength and power of the extended Alarm community who care for me personally, just as they do for the words and music and all that brings us together through this unique union.
I am as committed as ever to taking on this new challenge with all that I have, whilst at the same time, listening to my body and also to that of the medical experts who can help me understand what I can and can’t do.
I can still sing, play guitar and write songs, and I give thanks for all the simple things in life that keep me going.
Forwards.
Mike Peters
25th September 2022
