(AP) – 19 minutes ago

NEW YORK — The wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is a cancer survivor.

Patti Hansen reveals in the August issue of Vogue magazine that she was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2007.

She says she first underwent chemotherapy, which shrunk the tumor but didn't get rid of it completely. One doctor said she had two to three years to live.

Her next move was a bold one: Doctors removed her bladder and used her intestine to create a neobladder, or a new bladder. She also had her appendix removed and a full hysterectomy.

The 54-year-old Hansen says she wants to help other women who suffer from bladder cancer. The disease is typically associated with men, but an increasing number of women are also suffering from it.

The August issue of Vogue hits newsstands nationwide July 20.

Wow,looking at her you would never realize she was that sick. Good for her. Nice of her to tell her story.


I think now we can see and understand why Keith hasnt done very much since the last tour ended.


Yeah I thought of that as well Gazza. But obviously,her health is far more important than any Stones activity.

Kudos to Patti for the courage to make her story public and very best wishes for her continued good health.




Link to the interview > http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/patti-hansen-rock-steady/

WELL, DON'T WE All FEEL A LITTLE BLOODY STUPID !

THANKS ! BEST STONES READ IN YEARS !! GOOD LUCK PATTI !

Wow, this is a shock. I feel bad for calling Keith lazy, childish etc.....
Cancer is a painful experience and I had no idea Patti's sisters died of cancer.
I love this woman. She's my favorite latter-day Stones chick.....funny, smart, level-headed and with a strong foundation in her faith and she's not afraid to say it.
Good for her. She has real grace.
Yes, Lady Jane, cancer sucks! My father, mother and sister are all cancer survivors, thank God, but you never forget that fear or sense of uncertainty and mortality.
Somehow, knowing that cancer has affected the Stones has made it less scary, if that makes sense. I also admire how the family kept it private and dealt with it.

How they kept that quiet for so long is amazing!

Patti is a very brave and strong woman.  Good article and she will make a very good spokes person for those with bladder cancer.

At one point during the tour we turn a corner and arrive at a closed door. Hansen, hand on the knob, pauses and gives me a you-are-not-going-to-believe-this stare. "It's not like Keith goes down here anymore," she says, rolling her eyes as only a woman who has been married to a man for 27 years could. We head down into the basement, the stairway walls lined with gold and platinum records, and emerge into what must be every aging Rolling Stones fan's secret fantasy: a virtual barroom filled with rock paraphernalia and table games of every sort. Keith used to record down here, but no more: Patti moved most of the amps and mixing boards out (though there are guitars and saxophones and keyboards all over the house).

-

Speaking of immortality, Keith's official memoirs, written with the journalist James Fox, are coming out in the fall from Little, Brown. Hansen is nervous. "I never really read any of the books about Keith," she says. "I'm living it. Why do I want to read someone else's interpretation of it?" When Fox asked Hansen questions about certain aspects of her husband's life, her response was often "I don't know anything about that." "I didn't talk much," she says. "Let's just say that. Let it be about the music." She sighs. "It's a very emotional situation, with him talking about himself. You must have read how he's embracing sobriety now. That's a whole other way to look at life. It's heavy. But he wants to put it out there." She laughs. "I'm sure I'll be going straight to the index."

Without wishing to deviate from this thread too much, thats two very interesting little tidbits. One not so good , the other certainly more positive.

phew! she dodged a bullet... i'm glad we didn't know, and found out by good news!

thanks for posting
One love Patti

sweetcharmedlife wrote on Jul 13^th, 2010 at 7:00pm:



Yes. Thats the 'not so good' bit. Purely from a musical perspective of course. If it was a reaction to his wife's illness and him getting his priorities in order, thats another thing entirely, of course, and totally understandable.  Although it did say she moved them out.

Anyway, like I said, I dont want to deviate from the tone of the thread too much as something like that is a triviality by comparison. She's recovering well and thats all that matters.

Amazing story. Patti showed a lot of courage and strength for beating cancer through a process that sounds horrific and unimaginable. Fortunately, she made it through and will continue to live a healthy life.

Gazza wrote on Jul 13^th, 2010 at 7:57pm:

Right I understand that perfectly and not to belabor the point. But how much recording did Keith do there in the first place? Espicially Stones related recording?

God, that was a shock! I don't know what to say... So glad Patti's alright now! Cancer sucks, what it does to the patient and the family, psychologically as well as physically... She's so strong and brave! Can't believe they were going through all that stuff just a couple of years ago. Thank God all turned out alright.

LadyJane wrote on Jul 14^th, 2010 at 6:49am:


I second that! 

A great read with an apparent happy ending all around. Love this qoute " "He does need to get on tour soon so I can look at him like that again."

Even Patti agrees we need a fucking tour.

I'm very happy to read that she is okay and doing much better.

sweetcharmedlife wrote on Jul 13^th, 2010 at 10:13pm:



Thats where he tends to work on pretty much everything, waiting for 'incoming'.....

She's always been one of the most beautiful women in the world, and one of my all-time crushes. Keith is one lucky guy to have such a ROCK SOLID woman in his life.

And as for this little tid bit about her removing the amps....who knows...maybe she moved them into a secret recording studio. Either way it don't matter in the end. If Keef needs a guitar, I'm sure one is never far away.

From experiencing cancer through family members, there is something exhilaratingly life-affirming about beating cancer that makes everything else so small. It truly gives you a new lease on life. Looking at these pictures from the Stones in Exile premier, they have that look of 'it's going to be okay now..'
Not to sound like a selfish Stones fan, but maybe this will re-energize Keith's output. I'd love for Keith to take a more prominent lead in the studio and write more lyrics, sing lead on more songs.....

Daily Mail report on the Vogue article includes a pic of Keith and Patti at last week's Ringo show in NYC.

The 2010 photos of her are like night and day compared to the 2008 ones.

Worrying about somebody long term will age you FAST.

Vibes out to the Richards family.

KEITH Richards' wife has now movingly revealed how the Rolling Stone nursed her through her latest cancer battle.


Former model Patti Hansen, who married the legendary guitarist in 1983, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2007 and was reportedly given a “50-50” chance of survival.


Having thankfully responded well to chemotherapy, Patti has now publicly paid tribute to her devoted husband and insists the traumatic experience brought them closer together.

“We now have a really open relationship,” explains Patti, 54, who also overcame a breast cancer scare in 2005. “I used to hold back so much from him. I didn’t want to tell him the bad stuff. Now I tell him every little thing that’s going on. I’m so blessed. I feel so healed.”

Recalling how she and Keith, 66, coped during her treatment, Patti says: “I didn’t lose my hair, but I just sat there like a lump on a log.

“Keith and I watched a lot of Turner Classic Movies like couch potatoes.”

Ironically her tribute to Keith comes at a time when his old band mate Sir Mick Jagger has been enduring decidedly less flattering publicity courtesy of ex-wife Jerry Hall’s new memoirs. Hall, 54, describes Jagger as a “sexual predator”.

Richards has long had the most decadent image of all the band members, courtesy of his well-documented drug and alcohol abuse over the decades. However, these days he’s said to have cleaned up his act.

 
Keith and Patti’s daughter Alexandra acknowledges her father initially struggled to cope with her mother’s illness before becoming her “rock”. “He definitely shut down, he thought the worst,” she now says. “Dad held her hand through the whole thing.”


http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/201898/Keith-Richards-was-my-rock-says-...

Keith is such a sweetheart. I think addictions brought out a more negative side of him back in the 70s, but at heart - he's always been Keith, a kind, sensitive, gentle soul.

Yes, and that shows in his playing, which makes the Stones so sublime.

This is old news, posted on July 13, 2010

http://rocksoff.org/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1279046791/0

As you can see you replied

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Oct 24^th, 2011 at 10:18am:



oops my bad
i cant remember what i did yesterday let alone what i posted a year back.
worth revisiting tho.
Looks like it really roughed Keef up.