Lady A singer Charles Kelley has revealed he has been diagnosed with blood cancer.
The American musician, 45, is best known as the co-lead vocalist and founding member of the country music trio Lady A, which was formed in 2006.
Posting a video on Instagram filmed alongside his wife Cassie, Kelley captioned the post "a little health update" before announcing he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare type of blood cancer.
He said: "Hey everybody. Just wanted to give a quick update on some health issues I'm dealing with.
"I had [a] couple [of] random rib fractures that happened, which sparked my doctor into having me do several different blood tests.
"And one of the last blood tests we did, they found a blood cancer in there called multiple myeloma, and it's rare."
He continued: "I'm young, I feel healthy, and the treatments, I will say, have just come so far, even in the past five years. Even life expectancy just far exceeds what it used to be and, I don't know, I feel really hopeful. I really do."
Kelley then compared sharing the news of his diagnosis with speaking openly about his sobriety journey.
"Just getting this stuff off your chest is so freeing, and it takes the power away from it a little bit that we want to let y'all know what was going on," he said.
"But we're going to get through it. You know, I think in sobriety it's all about one day at a time and that we're not in control, and so that's the way we're looking at it."
Kelley has spoken about his struggles with alcohol in the past, with the band also announcing in 2022 that they were postponing the remainder of their Request Line Tour to support his "journey to sobriety".
The singer then ended his video by sharing he was "hopeful" despite the diagnosis.
"Right now, I feel great and we've got a new record coming out soon with Lady A and we've got Christmas shows," he said.
"This first six months of treatment is not going to be too invasive, I believe – I can still work and I think physically I will feel like myself.
"I will have tough days, but I want to keep working. I need to be happy and doing what I love to do and soaking up as much time with my family as I can.
"It's just another hurdle, and you know, I'm confident that we're going to get through it."
Kelley's bandmates commented on the post, with lead vocalist Hillary Scott writing: "The strongest duo right there! Love y'all so much! You've got this!"
Meanwhile, Dave Haywood shared: "Covering you in prayer, brother. Love y'all. We're all here for you!"
In a video on Instagram, Kelley's wife Cassie – mother of the couple's sons, Ward, 10, and Archer, one – also shared that the family had experienced a "challenging few weeks".
"This has, as you can imagine, been a really hard season," she said, through tears.
"This diagnosis is pretty new, so we are just adjusting to it as a family. But we want to try and keep our lives as normal as possible, our routines as normal as possible for Ward, specifically, to the best of our ability."
She added: "Until the doctor tells [Charles] he can't keep [performing], he's going to keep doing that."
Lady A – previously known as Lady Antebellum – are next set to perform a series of Christmas shows across the United States in December as part of their This Winter's Night Tour.
The band is best known for the single Need You Now, which spent five weeks at number one in the US when it was released in 2009.
Source: Press Association
