David Johansen, New York Dolls singer, battling stage 4 cancer and seeking financial help
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — David Johansen, an actor and popular singer with the New York Dolls, is “bedridden and incapacitated,” according to his daughter.
The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund recently hosted an online fundraiser for Johansen, which included information from his daughter, Leah Hennessey.
“As some, but not many of you know, David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade,” Hennessey wrote. “Five years ago at the beginning of the pandemic we discovered that David’s cancer had progressed and he had a brain tumor.”
“There have been complications ever since,” she added. “He’s never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing.”
According to Hennessey, matters were made worse when Johansen suffered a fall the day after Thanksgiving, breaking his back in two places.
“After a week in the hospital and a successful surgery David has been bedridden and incapacitated,” she wrote. “Due to the trauma, David’s illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock. ”
Johansen, who was the subject recently of the Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, shared a statement with Rolling Stone.
“We’ve been living with my illness for a long time, still having fun, seeing friends and family, carrying on, but this tumble the day after Thanksgiving really brought us to a whole new level of debilitation,” he said in the statement. “This is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I’ve never been one to ask for help, but this is an emergency. Thank you.”
His daughter said money raised will go toward hiring care for her father and assisting the family in their expenses.
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