Wilko Johnson feels friends’ agony over cancer diagnosis

Terminally-ill rocker Wilko Johnson has to rally round his pals and cheer them up because they are so miserable over his cancer battle. The former Dr. Feelgood star was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer last year (12) and has refused chemotherapy treatment to go out in a blaze of glory with farewell concerts and a new album.
He insists he experienced a “strange elation” after being told the news he is dying and feels “very alive” and “better than ever before” since the diagnosis.
His mood is only ruined whenever he has to break the news to pals, because he feels sad watching their sorrow.
Johnson tells Mojo magazine, “I found it really hard to phone my friends and tell people; it was better when I could leave a message and say, ‘Can you call me?’. I went through it myself watching my wife die. Being absolutely helpless. Here was the dearest thing in the universe, dying, nothing I can do.
“Now I’m in that place. It’s worse for everyone else. You see the tears brimming in their eyes and you think, Come on! Rob, my manager, is intercepting thousands of emails, some of which mention all these cures. Oh man, I can’t deal with that.”