Source: Blabbermouth.net
51-year-old DEF LEPPARD and LAST IN LINE guitarist Vivian Campbell, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma earlier in the year, has posted the following message on his Facebook page:
“For anyone who gives a toss, after doing another PET scan and all the other follow-up tests, then getting a second opinion, etc., I’m officially in remission from Hodgies. That’s the good news. The bad news is: I no longer have an excuse to not go to the gym.”
Campbell, who joined LEPPARD in 1992 after stints in DIO and WHITESNAKE, had been receiving chemotherapy since April.
“I feel fortunate that my cancer sent me an alarm call in the form of ‘the cough that wouldn’t quit,'” Campbell said earlier in the year.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a cancer of the immune system characterized by the painless enlargement of lymph nodes, spleen, or immune tissue.
“I did kind of want to not go public with it at first, because it is a weird kind of thing,”Campbell said in a June radio interview. “You’ve got to kind of learn to deal with it on your own terms before you can address the rest of the world about it. So, you know, I feel very comfortable going public about it. For the first couple months, I even tried to keep it from my children, because they were still in school and doing exams and stuff and I didn’t want to add to their concerns. But after a while, it’s inevitable that you, you know, something’s going on and you have to kind of come out with it and kind of explain what the situation is. But I’m very comfortable with it. I’m very comfortable with the treatment. I’m very comfortable with how my body is reacting to it.”
Last month, DEF LEPPARD‘s recent Las Vegas extravaganza hit the silver screen for two nights. NCM Fathom Events together with AEG Live and Network Live brought DEF LEPPARD “Viva! Hysteria” concert to over 250 theaters across the country with a full front-to-back performance of 1987’s multi-platinum “Hysteria” album — along with a healthy dose of the band’s greatest hits.