Ronnie Wood says he was ready to say goodbye to his family after being diagnosed with lung cancer
The 70-year-old Rolling Stone said the diagnosis, which he kept secret, led to the darkest period of his life
ROLLING Stone Ronnie Wood has been fighting a secret battle with lung cancer.
Ron, 70, had an op but refused chemo. He said: “Everything was in the balance.”
Ronnie has revealed how he prepared to say goodbye to his family after he was diagnosed with cancer.
The Rolling Stone said the diagnosis led to the darkest period of his life.
The guitarist also recalled how he took the agonising decision to have an operation rather than chemotherapy because he did not want to lose his hair.
The father of six said: “I’ve had a fight with a touch of lung cancer.
“There was a week when everything hung in the balance and it could have been curtains, time to say goodbye.”
Ronnie, who quit smoking a week before his one-year-old twins Gracie and Alice were born, was diagnosed three months ago during a routine medical with the band’s doctor Richard Dawood.
He said that Dawood asked if he could “go deeper” and check his heart, lungs and blood.
He said: “I said go for it.”
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine today he said: “And then he came back with the news that I had this supernova burning away on my left lung.
“And to be totally honest, I wasn’t surprised. I knew I hadn’t had a chest X-ray since I went into Cottonwood [a rehab clinic in Tucson, Arizona] in 2002. He asked me what I wanted to do and my answer was simple, ‘Just get it out of me’.”
The star’s third wife Sally, who is 31 years his junior, became his rock as he endured a week of tests to see if the condition had spread.
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Ronnie said: “If that had happened, it would have been all over for me. So there was one week when I didn’t know what was happening.
“Sally was amazing. It’s only since we’ve got through it that she has been able to tell me how it was the worst seven days of her life.”
The guitarist said he was adamant that whatever happened, he was not going to undergo chemotherapy.
He said: “I was prepared for bad news but I also had faith it would be OK. Apart from the doctors, we didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want to put anyone else through the hell we were going through.
“But I made up my mind that if it had spread, I wasn’t going to go through chemo, I wasn’t going to use that bayonet in my body.”
He said: “It’s more I wasn’t going to lose my hair. This hair wasn’t going anywhere.
“A week later they came back with the news that it hadn’t spread and I said, ‘Let’s get it out now’.
"Just before I closed my eyes for the operation, I looked at the doctor and said, ‘Let battle commence’.”
Party animal Ronnie packed in his smoking habit after his twins with theatre producer wife Sally were born last year.
The Sun revealed he switched to e-cigarettes.
The former hell-raiser has a long history of drink and drug abuse.
The rocker’s ex-wife Jo said he spent so much on drugs he borrowed money from bandmates to pay for his kids’ school fees.