David Johansen Is 'Very, Very Sick' but 'With Us Mentally, Emotionally,' His Daughter Says in New Interview (Exclusive)

• Daughter of David Johansen — the legendary singer of the New York Dolls — says that her father is "totally with us —mentally, emotionally" following a bad fall on Thanksgiving

• Leah Hennessey is raising funds for her father's care, sharing that the iconic signer has been undergoing a 10-year cancer struggle that's left him with a "mountain of medical debt"

• She shared that Johansen is "reading all the messages" and the donations will make a "significant difference" in his care

Leah Hennessey — the daughter of trailblazing punk icon David Johansen — is giving a health update on her father’s condition, days after revealing that he’s been battling a brain tumor and 10-year cancer struggle.

“He's very, very sick, but he's reading all the messages and he's getting in touch with people he hasn't talked to in many years,” Hennessy tells PEOPLE exclusively. “The connection is probably the best thing for him right now — as it is for all of us.”

As Hennessy shared on Feb. 10, her father had a bad fall on Thanksgiving, which left him bedridden. “He was just walking down the stairs and he slipped,” she told PEOPLE. “The fall is really when things turned. It really accelerated things.”

Still, she says, “he's totally with us — mentally, emotionally” but “he's physically incapacitated. He's bedridden. He can't walk and hasn't been able to since Thanksgiving.”

Beyond that, her father and mother, Mara Hennessey, “want to keep medical details private for now — that's up to their discretion,” Hennessey, 36, said.

But she had their blessing to share the news of his condition in the hope of raising funds for Johansen’s care. Having had success with crowdfunding in the past, Hennessey says, “I volunteered to do this for my parents because I was so overwhelmed by my own powerlessness in the face of this tragedy and what was starting to feel like a crisis.”

“I'm just so grateful that I could help in a way that was within my skill set.” 

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Hennessey teamed up with the Sweet Relief Musician' Fund — which provides financial assistance to artists and those in the music industry struggling with health challenges — to raise funds for his care with a specially designed shirt in his honor and straightforward donations.

“Fame does not equal financial security,” Hennessey tells PEOPLE, saying the money will go towards “the mountain of medical debt that has accrued over the past ten years,”  as well as round-the-clock care for her father. Right now, Hennessey says her mother is in “a 24-hour state of devotion. Their love is mythological,” she said. “They are so in love every moment of the day and it's an incredible thing to be part of and see.”

The funds raised already, she says, will make a “significant difference… in terms of the quality of care.”

“It's really making me cry because almost all of the donations are under $100. It's the kind of money that people are happy to spend on a musician they love.”

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Beyond the fundraiser, she encourages people to continue sharing their memories of her father, explaining, “We love seeing all the different perspectives and the celebrations of his life — [it] really is a big part of the fundraiser.”

Along with the protopunk outfit the New York Dolls, Johansen is also renowned for his alter-ego solo persona Buster Poindexter. In 1987 he scored a Billboard hit with single, “Hot Hot Hot” as the outlandish character, a year before his scene-stealing turn as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Bill Murray-led hit Scrooged.

“The truth is that his fans, they're always gonna have David. They're always gonna have the David that they know, and we're not going to have our David," Hennessey tells PEOPLE. "The man, the real guy at the kitchen table, that's who's gonna be gone.”

“But what he's created and the impact he's had on the world, and what he's given over and over again, that's not going anywhere. He's part of the city, and he's part of the culture, and he's part of history. That's gonna live on no matter what.”

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