Photo: Press
The Wrens' Charles Bissell has revealed that he has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer which is says is "not 'curable' per se."
The singer and guitarist, who was recruited to the indie rock band by brothers Greg and Kevin Whelan back in 1989, began treatment at the end of last week for multiple myeloma.
"That's a white blood cell cancer sorta thing," he wrote on Facebook, "(technically a plasma cell, so not actually leukemia but that's sorta splitting cilia (please note bio/hair pun). But because I'm 'young' for this (avg. age of diagnosis is usually more like 70) and because targeted treatments have advanced so much esp. in the last few years, my prognosis is almost certainly not as dire as googling might make it seem."
He added, "It's not 'curable' per se - but here that's not in the usual sense of a dramatic Brian's Song 'get your affairs in order, you've got nine months'. Here it means more that you're stuck with a longish weekly hospital commute for meds/chemo from here on out (with sooner/later, possibly/probably a bone marrow transplant (not as crazy as it sounds, more on that also below)). So really almost more like a chronic condition like say, diabetes. If diabetes came with free bone marrow."
Bissell also revealed that he's taking part in a clinical trial, and that three week's worth of medication is worth just over $10,000 - which "at least luckily for now" are covered by insurance.
The diagnosis has, understandably, delayed the band's new album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2003's The Meadowlands.
