Wilko Johnson Says He's 'Cured of Cancer' During Q Icon Award Acceptance Speech

Wilko Johnson has announced he has been "cured" of pancreatic cancer more than 18 months after being told he had less than one year to live.

The Dr Feelgood guitarist said he is now hoping to get "all [his] strength back soon and get back on the road" after declaring he is free from the terminal cancer while accepting the Icon honour at the Q Awards.

Johnson, 67, was said to be making "excellent progress" following an operation earlier in the year to remove a "football-sized" tumour as well as his entire pancreas, part of his stomach and parts of both his small and large intestines.

He initially refused chemotherapy after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in January 2013 and performed a series of "farewell" gigs.

He also released an album with Who frontman Roger Daltrey which entered the top 10.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in London, Johnson said: "The beginning of last year I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told it was inoperable and I had 10 months to live.

"I thought blimey, we'd better organise a farewell tour. Somehow at the end of the tour I was still on my feet and we got to FujiRocks festival in Japan. It was pouring with rain but as we walked out on stage, the clouds opened and the sun came shining down and I remember thinking, this might be the last concert I ever do. And that's quite a kick I can tell you."

He added: "But then came along this doctor, called Charlie Chan, and he was curious why I still wasn't dead. So I went down to Addenbrooks hospital in Cambridge, and they ran all the tests again and told me they thought they could operate on it. And they did it.

"It was an 11-hour operation, they took this tumour out of me that weighed three kilos. I was carrying that thing on stage with me every night. But they got the whole thing out of me. They cured me. So I'm hoping to get all my strength back soon and get back on the road.

"So the moral of this story is, you never know what's going to happen."

Johnson then left the stage to a standing ovation.

Before his operation to remove the tumour, Johnson gave an interview to GQ magazine in which he explained he didn't want chemotherapy as being told he was going to die gave him an "intense" feeling of being alive.

He added: "I didn't want to struggle against it. I didn't want to fight it. I never clung to false hopes. I didn't want to ruin my last few months of life. I just felt - I'm alive, I'm alive. Death, where is thy sting?"

Johnson found fame with the 1970s cult band Dr Feelgood, but also played with Ian Dury's The Blockheads and the Wilko Johnson Band.