The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell reveals ‘rare and aggressive’ blood cancer diagnosis

The Cure keyboardist Roger O’Donnell has revealed he has been diagnosed with “a very rare and aggressive form of lymphoma”.
The musician shared his diagnosis on social media in time with Blood Cancer Awareness Month, which falls in September, a year after he was first diagnosed.
O’Donnell, who joined the Cure in 1987, advised his fans to get tested.
“Cancer CAN be beaten but if you are diagnosed early enough you stand a way better chance, so all I have to say is go GET TESTED, if you have the faintest thought you may have symptoms go and get checked out,” O’Donnell wrote.
“I’m fine and the prognosis is amazing. The mad axe murderer knocked on the door and we didn’t answer.”
He said he had “ignored the symptoms for a few months” and when he went for a biopsy, the result had been “devastating”.
“I’ve now completed 11 months of treatment under some of the finest specialists in the world and with second opinions and advice from the teams that had developed the drugs I was being given,” he said. “I had the benefit of the latest sci-fi immunotherapy and some drugs that were first used 100 years ago. The last phase of treatment was radiotherapy which also was one of the first treatments developed against cancer.”
He ended by thanking his doctors, friends and family, adding: “If you know someone who is ill or suffering talk to them, every single word helps, believe me I know.”
While lymphoma symptoms vary, common symptoms can include fever, swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, fatigue, itchy skin, loss of appetite, bruising or bleeding easily, unexplained weight loss, and pain in the chest, abdomen or bones.
O’Donnell joined the Cure in 1987 as a touring keyboardist to step in for Lol Tolhurst, who had become unreliable due to alcohol abuse. He had previously performed with the band’s then drummer Boris Williams as a touring musician for Thompson Twins, and also performed with Berlin and the Psychedelic Furs.
O’Donnell became an official member of the Cure later that year, but left in 1990 over disagreements with his bandmates. He rejoined in 1995, left again in 2005, and rejoined in 2011. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019.
In November, O’Donnell pulled out of the band’s Latin American tour for unspecified “health reasons”.