John Farnham's sons share update on his cancer battle: 'Long road'

The sons of Australian music legend John Farnham have revealed their father has a “long road” to recovery after the removal of a cancerous tumour.

The You're the Voice hitmaker has endured a very private battle against cancer, with the 73-year-old hospitalised earlier this year after he developed a chest infection following surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in his mouth.

On Friday, ahead of the release of a documentary on John's life titled Finding the Voice, Robert and James Farnham told Sunrise their father was “in recovery”.

“It’s a fairly long road, as cancer is, but he is doing well and we get to spend a lot of time with him and his spirits are up so that's all we can ask for,” Robert said.

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“He's really strong, he's resilient and he's quite stubborn. So I wouldn't say it's a tough road, I'd say it's just another thing that he has to go through, as a lot of people have to go through. Cancer's a horrible thing.

“He's got great support. The hospitals that he's been at in the past have been fantastic, the staff were amazing, the doctors were fantastic, so it would've been a lot harder without the amazing medical teams that we have here in Australia, so shout out to those guys.”

'Phenomenal'

The music legend’s sons revealed their dad has not yet seen the Australian-made documentary about his life, which premieres on Sunday.

“He’s pretty proud of it but he hasn’t seen it yet,” James said. “He doesn’t really like to listen or watch himself so it’s going to take a bit for him to watch it, but he’s proud of the whole situation and very happy with it all.”

The sons also told hosts Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington that they were impressed with the production team’s efforts to show their father’s story in a “real and really raw way”.

“We got to see a rough cut of it and it was just phenomenal,” Robert said.

“It wasn’t fluff, it was real and that we loved about it,” James added.

The family released a statement on Monday evening sharing the news of John's recovery and their appreciation for the medical staff who have treated him over the past eight months.

“The family would like to reiterate their appreciation and deepest respect for all the medical staff that have attended to John over the past eight months,” the statement read.

They also thanked his fans for the “many thousands of kind messages” from across Australia and the world.

With NCA Newswire

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