John Farnham cancer: Singer reveals he almost died during surgery to remove cancerous tumour in memoir The Voice Inside

John Farnham has shared that he was unknowingly on the verge of death two years ago as he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his mouth.

The Aussie legend was first diagnosed with the disease in August 2022 after he was pushed by his wife Jill to get a lump on the inside of his cheek checked by doctors.

He had assumed it was an ulcer, but after a consultation with a maxillofacial surgeon, and a biopsy, it was confirmed to be oral cancer that needed operating on immediately.

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Though it was a scary time for the family, it was much worse than what Farnham had initially realised.

In his new memoir The Voice Inside, an excerpt of which was featured in Good Weekend, he reveals that during the 12-hour-long operation, “someone from the medical team called Jillian a couple of times while I was in ­theatre – apparently I was very close to dying.

“Spoiler: As we all know, I survived the surgery,” the singer humorously added. One year on from his surgery and after many more, he revealed he was officially cancer free.

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Following the life-saving surgery, the Burn For You singer shared that he began to think “some dark thoughts”

“I’ve never felt so low in all my life. The thoughts were so dark, I don’t want to share them on this page. But they were very bleak and I wasn’t sure how to get beyond them.

“The cancer diagnosis had ­gutted me. I was lucky, I had the best possible ­doctors, they were amazing, but the surgery left me with a fair amount of facial disfigurement and pain. All that had built up to a point where the thoughts nearly got the better of me.”

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What pulled him out of it was the sight of a young girl of about 12 years old with a bald head and tubes all over her coming out of an ambulance.

“I watched this young girl, who had her whole life in front of her, yet she looked so sick and frail. She had a whole life to live and there I was, a man who had lived a good life, feeling sorry for myself,” he reflected.

“Seeing that girl also made me realise that I’d frightened myself with those dark thoughts. I had to do something about them. It was up to me to pull my socks up a little bit. I said to myself, ‘Cancer got me but it hasn’t killed me.'”

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The 75-year-old decided to reach out and get help, sharing his thoughts with his doctors. With professional help and support from his family, “it only took about a week for me to overcome those thoughts. I’d never felt that way before, I’d never had those thoughts, and talking about them was the only thing that made me feel better.”

He also encouraged his fans to reach out to others when feeling these thoughts early on.

“Get it out, confront it, get help to deal with them,” he said, “I was down, very down, but now, most times, I’m fine and I feel a lot of gratitude.”

If you or someone you know needs immediate or mental health-related support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via lifeline.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

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