Lady A’s Charles Kelly, having shared his sobriety journey in July, revealed Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.
It started with a “couple of random rib fractures” that prompted “several different blood tests,” the singer-songwriter said in an Instagram video while seated alongside his wife, Cassie. “And one of the last blood tests we did, they found a blood cancer in there called multiple myeloma.”
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells, the white blood cells that reside in bone marrow and manufacture antibodies, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains. When those become cancerous and grow out of control, they crowd out normal infection-fighting cells, according to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. The rogue cells produce abnormal antibodies, known as M proteins, that build up and damage bodily organs such as the kidneys, the Mayo Clinic describes.
“It’s rare,” Kelly continued. “But I’m young, I feel healthy, and the treatments, I will say, have just come so far, even in the past five years, so life expectancy just far exceeds what it used to be. I feel really hopeful. I really do.”
He said a friend who was diagnosed two months ago is shining some light on his own path, Kelly said.
“I think in the same spirit I shared some of my sobriety journey, just getting this stuff off your chest is so freeing, and it takes the power away from it a little bit, that we wanted to let you all know what was going on,” Kelly said. “But we’re going to get through it. You know, in sobriety it’s all about one day at a time and keeping it under control, and that’s the way we’re looking at it.”
He plans to keep working through treatment amid the release of Lady A’s upcoming album, “and then we’ve got Christmas shows,” he added.
He’s bracing himself for some “tough days,” he said, but couldn’t imagine standing down.
“I want to keep working,” Kelly said. “I need to be happy and doing what I love to do, and spend and soak up as much time as I can with my family as well.”
The couple share son Ward, 10, and Archer, 1.
They signed off with a message of hope – and Kelly’s promise “to let you in when I feel like it’s appropriate throughout the journey. It’s just another hurdle, and you know, I feel confident that we’re gonna get through it.”
The couple turned toward each other with a little kiss and then back to the camera.
“We’ve got this,” Kelly concluded.
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