6. Phil Lesh
Guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, 76, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 at age 66; his father died of the same disease. As reported in SFGate, he told fans, “Since we caught it very early and it’s small and slow-growing, I fully expect to have a rapid and complete recovery.” He underwent robotic surgery at the Vattikuti Urology Institute at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
In October 2015, Lesh announced he’d been diagnosed with bladder cancer and had had surgery to treat it. In an online statement he said, “I am very fortunate to have the pathology reports show that the tumors are all non-aggressive, and that there is no indication that they have spread.”
In 1998, Lesh underwent a liver transplant as a result of complications with chronic hepatitis C. Since then, he has been an advocate for organ donation and has become known for encouraging audience members at his shows to become organ donors.