In a social media post, NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer a little over two weeks ago.
The news was revealed by the 41-year-old Dutch-born singer on social media early on October 26.
According to Jansen, the prognosis is very good and the cancer appears to be non-aggressive. In addition to a surgery, the singer will undergo a local radiation treatment.
Jansen expects her recovery to be complete before the band is scheduled to hit the road on November 20th.
Her statement reads:
A letter to you, Life comes in waves, with ups and downs. I have had the joy of riding many highs, and I have shared these with you through social media and the many many shows worldwide throughout the many years of my career.
But now a new wave hit me. Not a good one. I have breast cancer. It was diagnosed a little over 2 weeks ago and I will have surgery tomorrow to remove the tumor. My prognosis is very good!!! It seems to be a non-aggressive cancer, which seems to not have spread. I will keep my breast. And I will be cancer free after this surgery, plus a local radiation treatment that will take place three months after this surgery, hopefully. We will know more after the surgery to see if this positive prognosis stands.
The word cancer is a shocker. All that you found important in life before this diagnosis changes radically within minutes. Now I just want to be healthy again. I want to see my daughter grow into a woman; I want to live! And the scariest part of this diagnosis is that I thought I was healthy! I didn’t feel the cancer, I didn’t know it was there until I, as a 40+ woman, went to a standard mammogram checkup. Something many countries offer, for free even for the lucky ones. Had I not gone there, the tumor would have gone undetected. In a year from now this could have grown much bigger. The thought of that makes me share this story with you. A mammogram is lifesaving! It’s uncomfortable and you might think that you won’t have something in your breasts anyway but GO! And for the men reading this: remind your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister to go and get checked. Even without the luxury I as a western woman experience with free mammogram checkups: GO! Luckily, there are many organizations that offer information about self-detection if you do not have access or funds for a mammogram.
If I might inspire you to take good care of yourself, then something good will come out of this cancer diagnosis.
If all goes as planned, I will be up and running in time for the European tour with NIGHTWISH, that will start on the 20th of November! And I am optimistic since my prognosis is good!
I promise to take good care of myself.
I will be off the grid for a while to focus on myself.
The band’s former lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon, departed abruptly from the band in 2012, leaving Floor Jansen as the band’s new frontwoman. She officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013.
The Dutch-born Jansen was 16 when she joined her first band, one of pioneering symphonic metal bands, AFTER FOREVER. They released five albums between 2000 and 2007, before breaking up in 2009. More recently, she appeared on the new Avantasia album, “A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society,” sharing the vocals with the project mastermind Tobias Sammet.