Jimmy Gomez, better known as the rapper Taboo from The Black Eyed Peas, had money, fame and a multi-platinum career when a strange back pain brought his world crashing down.
The six-time Grammy winner went to the doctor and got a gut-wrenching diagnosis he had testicular cancer.
He had more than 100 million record sales to his name and a string of worldwide dance hits like I Gotta Feeling and Where Is the Love, but it meant nothing in the face of cancer’s cruel reality, he said.
At first, he was only able to piece the details together slowly.“They didn’t tell me what type of cancer I had. They didn’t tell me what stage I was in. They just told me, Mr Gomez, you have cancer,” said Taboo, 42.
“My life flashed before my eyes. I thought about my kids, I thought about my wife. Nothing prepares you for the shock of someone telling you you have that horrible disease.” That was in 2014.
It was only last year that Taboo went public about his struggle with cancer – now in remission after a gruelling series of chemotherapy treatments.
Today, the Los Angeles native is an ambassador for the American Cancer Society and a vocal ally and fundraiser for cancer survivors everywhere. He spoke ahead of the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City, which gathered high-level policy makers for an annual exchange on fighting the world’s second-leading cause of death.
It was not an easy journey to get there.
Jaime Luis Gomez, aka Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, and a cancer survivor. Photos: AFP
First Taboo went through an agonising series of chemotherapy treatments 12 weeks of six-hour daily sessions that he describes as “war, torture and a nightmare” rolled into one.
“That was the feeling,” he said.“I’ve never been to war, but internally, when they’re destroying your insides to kill everything that’s good to kill that one thing that’s bad, which is the tumour, it scarred me psychologically, emotionally, inside and outside.”
At the American Cancer Society, he wants to be an “ambassador of love.”
Last year, as a fundraiser for the Cancer Society, he recorded a song called The Fight.His message today to others is that they can defeat cancer, too.
“I beat it down. And now I’m going to use this gift of life to give people hope and to say, Look, I went down that path too, I was there lying on that bed, you’re not alone.
“I am one of you and you are one of me. Let’s get charged up for life.”
Maybe the title of his next hit song. – AFP Relaxnews
