Veteran pop rock singer John Farnham was still in surgery in a Melbourne hospital on Tuesday afternoon, hours after revealing his shock cancer diagnosis.
The 73-year-old’s operation was not expected to finish until well into Tuesday night, entertainment reporter Peter Ford said.
Ford told Sydney’s 2GB radio that medical staff and Farnham’s family still believed the surgery would be a success
The mammoth operation, which was expected to take 12 hours, began just hours after the singer’s family confirmed his illness in a statement on Tuesday morning.
“We have recently discovered that John has a cancerous growth,” his family, including wife Jill, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“He has been admitted to hospital this morning for surgery and ongoing treatment.”
She and his two sons, Robert and James, were reportedly at hospital with the singer on Tuesday.
In a separate statement provided by his family, Farnham said a cancer diagnosis was something many people faced each day “and countless others have walked this path before me”.
“The one thing I know for sure is that we have the very best specialist healthcare professionals in Victoria and we can all be grateful for that. I know I am.”
The family has requested privacy.
Today show entertainment editor Richard Wilkins said Farnham was in hospital on Tuesday morning to have a malignant tumour removed.
“He is getting prepped as we speak,” he said.
“He is apparently cracking jokes with the doctors.”
Ford said earlier that Farnham’s family wanted his exact cancer diagnosis to remain private.
“They have confirmed to me that it is a tumour that has to be removed but whereabouts on the body they don’t want to say at this point,” he said.
Tuesday’s surgery was expected to “take the best part of 12 hours”, Ford said.
The cancer scare comes three years after Farnham was hospitalised with a severe kidney infection.
The music powerhouse previously said the health scare served as a wake-up call and prompted him to quit smoking, according to News Corp.
Tweet from @JacksPlaceJF
It also comes just months after he lost two of his close friends. Music producer Glenn Wheatley, a former manager of Farnham, died in February and singer Olivia Newton-John died just over a fortnight ago.
Farnham issued rare social media tributes after the deaths Wheatley.
“Devastating news… there are no words, our hearts are broken,” he wrote.
He followed it up with another tribute for Newton-John after her death on August 9 after a long cancer battle.
“Love and sympathies to Olivia’s family,” he wrote.
“Behind that iconic smile was a tenacious fighter. A beautiful voice and a loyal friend.”
Tweet from @JacksPlaceJF
Farnham and Newton-John performed together numerous times, most notably at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. They also sang together at the Fire Fight Australia concert in February 2020.
Farnham sang his way into Australian hearts as a fresh-faced teenager in the 1960s but had faded into near-obscurity before Whispering Jack shot him back to the top some 20 years later.
The 1986 album produced one of the nation’s best-known anthems, You’re the Voice, and propelled Farnham to hero status. He followed up Whispering Jack with his chart-topping albums Age of Reason (1988) and Chain Reaction (1990).
Farnham was born in 1949 in Dagenham, England. Aged 10, he emigrated to Australia with his family, and settled in Melbourne.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was difficult news.
“All Australians love John Farnham,” Mr Albanese said.
“John Farnham has been and continues to be a great Australian. He has not only provided entertainment for Australians over many decades, he also has been a contributor to the nation.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also wished him well.
“He’s such a big part of our story, such a wonderful person, and I wish him and his family well in what is surely a very difficult time,” Mr Andrews said at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre on Tuesday.
-with AAP
