Mike Peters, frontman of Welsh rockers The Alarm, has revealed that his cancer, which had been in remission, has returned. Peters woke with a lump on his neck earlier this month, which was swiftly scanned. The results revealed that his chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) had transformed into a high-grade lymphoma.
The Alarm were due to travel to the US this week to begin the Live Today Love Tomorrow Tour, which was scheduled to begin at the House Of Blues in Nashville on May 1, but those shows have been cancelled.
"I am still reeling from the consequences of this new and completely unforeseen diagnosis and doing my best to process what is happening," says Peters. "I’m grateful for the love and understanding of everyone affected by the tour postponement and hoping and praying with all that I have, that this is just a pause in the story of my life, and that normal service will be able to resume soon.
"Cancer has been chasing me for 29 years now, and in all that time, I have managed to outrun the disease and stay alive. My focus and resolve remain the same, and I’m determined to keep running even harder to stay one step ahead and resume my life as a husband, father, and musician as soon as possible."
Peters, who recovered from lymph cancer in 1996 and was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2005, was struck down by pneumonia after returning from tour in April 2022, and spent most of that year either in hospital or at home recovering, but a new drug regimen enabled him to complete work on a new album, 2023's Forwards.
"I actually started writing some of the songs while I was in hospital," Peters told Classic Rock. "I had a drain coming out of my back, releasing the blood that had filled my lung, so I could only lie on one side, for hours on end, for ten days non-stop. I could have half an hour between IV sessions when I could sit up. I knew I was going to be in for a long time, so I had the guitar there. I’d strum a few chords and then it was: 'Right, Mike, you’ve got to get back on your side, down you go.'"
