Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant has thanked fans for their prayers for his youngest daughter and his family – but he’s also asking for more as they’re “not out of the woods yet”.
Last week, the 64-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group vocalist revealed on his Facebook and Instagram pages that his youngest daughter, Taylor, had been treated at an emergency room after experiencing a “numbing feeling on her right side”.
He then revealed days later that doctors had discovered a mass on her brain in an announcement that came after Lynyrd Skynyrd cancelled five shows across the United States, with Van Zant departing the tour to be with his daughter.
Watch the video above.
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Now, in a new Instagram video, Van Zant has told his fans: “My gosh do I appreciate you all more than words could express”.
“I know every week I ask for prayers for others but needing them for my own family is a feeling I’m new to,” he wrote to his 25,800 followers this morning, noting Taylor was now home with her family recovering and resting.
“I thank everyone so much for your concerns and sweet words since the news of my daughter came out.
“I am also very grateful for the fans understanding in the cancelling of shows so I could be with her.”
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“The past week has been a whirlwind of emotions but reading all your hopeful messages and comments really helped lift my spirits,” he continued.
“Keep praying for Taylor during this time of transition,” he wrote, saying she had been diagnosed with a cavernoma and the family still had “a long way to go”.
A cavernoma – cavernous hemangioma – is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels found usually in the spinal cord and brain. Van Zant says Taylor has not been diagnosed with cancer but it was still a “very scary time” for himself, his wife and his children.
In a recent Facebook video, Van Zant explained in more detail what was happening with Taylor, noting that a mass on Taylor’s brain had been found following a CAT scan.
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“Some of it was bleeding, that was causing the numbing part,” Van Zant explained on social media.
“Saying this, we’ve had her with a great neurology team, a group of doctors and they don’t think its the C-word, so that’s a good thing.”
“But they’re still doing a lot of testing and we’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re in a lot better position than we thought we were in the beginning.”
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Van Zant – who joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987 – asked his fans to continue “saying prayers” for Taylor, saying it ”means everything to me and my family.”
He also asked fans to keep Brad Gibson, the rock group’s bus driver, in their thoughts too as he had been taken to the ICU following a scooter accident.
Gibson’s accident, Van Zant said, happened while he was on his way to get a card for Van Zant’s family.
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