healthmedicinet

Melissa Etheridge

In 2005, rock-and-roll artist Etheridge underwent a lumpectomy and five rounds of chemotherapy and radiation to eradicate her breast cancer.

“I had been running along in my life at a fast pace. When I heard it was cancer, I just stood still,” Etheridge told emShape/em magazine in a 2009 interview. “My life passed over me like a big wave, and after, I was left there standing. This turned out to be a very good thing. I stopped. I looked at my life, I looked at my body and spirit.”

In the midst of her treatment, Etheridge found out she was a href=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6994469/ns/dateline_nbc/t/melissa-etheridges-brave-comeback/” target=”_hplink”nominated for a Grammy/a for her song “Breathe” — and while she wasn’t sure she’d make an appearance at first, Etheridge ultimately decided not only to attend, but to perform in a Janis Joplin tribute. Taking to the stage bald and with no eyebrows — a side-effect of the chemo — she belted out Joplin’s classic, “Piece Of My Heart.”

“It was very special that I had been presented with a day, that I could come back into this entertainment world, and show everyone that you are back and okay, and thought, okay,” Etheridge told a href=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6994469/ns/dateline_nbc/t/melissa-etheridges-brave-comeback/” target=”_hplink”MSNBC at the time/a. “I’m going to do this. And I’m not gonna be afraid of the truth. The truth is, yes I had cancer. Yes, I got it out of me. Yes, I went through chemotherapy. Yes, I’m bald.”

Check out Etheridge’s breast cancer causes on her a href=”http://www.melissaetheridge.com/pinkpage” target=”_hplink”Pink Rage website/a.