Lady A singer Charles Kelley has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare type of blood cancer.
The country star shared his diagnosis in a video posted Tuesday to Instagram captioned “A little health update.”
“I had [a] couple random rib fractures that happened, which sparked my doctor into having me do several different blood tests,” Kelley said while seated next to his wife, Cassie. “One of the last blood tests we did, they found a blood cancer in there called multiple myeloma. It’s rare. But I’m young, I feel healthy, and the treatments, I will say, have just come so far even in the past five years, that even the life expectancy far exceeds what it used to be.”
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of a type of white blood cells called plasma cells in the bone marrow. According to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, these cancerous cells crowd out the normal cells, which can affect things like a person’s ability to fight infections. The organization notes that survival rates have improved “significantly” over the last 10 years.
“I feel really hopeful, I really do,” Kelley said in his video. He explained that a friend who has also been diagnosed with the disease has been sharing her journey and that has “helped … so much.”
The Lady A singer said he is approaching the situation much like his sobriety journey, which he has also shared with fans over the years over social media. The musician celebrated four years of being sober over the summer.
Kelley reiterated in the video that he “feel[s] great” and shared his intent to keep working. He said Lady A has a new record on the way, and that the Grammy-winning trio has a slate of Christmas shows scheduled for December.
“I’m hopeful. I really am,” Kelly said. “We just wanted to let y’all know. And I’ll try to let you in when I feel like it’s appropriate throughout the journey. It’s just another hurdle and I feel confident that we’re gonna get through it.”
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