Over the Thanksgiving weekend Ronnie James Dio's wife and manager Wendy Dio informed the world that the legendary metal singer was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She updated fans again on Thursday with how Ronnie's treatment is going. Here is what she had to say: Well, it has been a very exhausting month – after all the neverending tests in Los Angeles, we flew to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and as soon as we arrived, we got a call from the MD Anderson Hospital that they had an appointment for us with the doctor we originally wanted, so we then flew to Houston to the clinic, and of course MORE tests, but Ronnie finished receiving his first chemo treatment on Wednesday, and all is going very well.
I would like to thank Tony Martell from the T.J. Martell Foundation, Dr. Stuart Aaronson from Mount Sinai, Lindsay Brown and Mike Carden from Eagle Records, and our very own Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, for all your help in getting us into MD Anderson, and also our friends Geezer and Gloria Butler, who flew to Houston to be with Ronnie while he had his chemo.
Ronnie and I are totally overwhelmed by the amount of well wishes that we have received from friends and fans - we are reading them all. Some make us laugh, some make us cry, but all of them are so filled with love that it gives us so much support and makes Ronnie even more determined to fight this battle and win. Thank you all for the positive energy and prayers.
--Wendy Dio
It looks like they feel that treatment will go well and Ronnie will be well enough to perform this summer as both Metallica and Classic Rock.com reported that they expect Heaven and Hell at music festivals in Europe. (see related Metallica story for details on that pairing) and here is a little of what Classic Rock had to report: Heaven & Hell have apparently been confirmed for the Nova Rock Festival in Austria, and also for Sonisphere Festival dates in Sweden and Finland. more
