Cancer battle won't keep Candye Kane from performing at Simi Valley's Cajun & Blues Music Festival

Getting the blues in Simi Valley could be the realization that the nearest Nordstrom is in Canoga Park, or perhaps that only nine cops live on your street. But the place to be for some real blues, not to mention a free geography lesson when Simi Valley becomes the westernmost parish in "the Bayou State," is the 23rd annual Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park on Saturday and Sunday. The headliner and party-ender Sunday night is Candye Kane, glad to be anywhere considering the alternative.

Kane is a cancer survivor — specifically, neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer. The survival rate is equivalent to that of the extra "Star Trek" crewmen who beam down to uncharted planets with Kirk and Spock. This is Kane's second round with this particular form of cancer, and following surgery on May 2, she's set to make a remarkably speedy return to performing.

She recently posted on her Facebook page that "the surgery was successful in that my pancreatic duct is unclogged." However, she will need radiation therapy for "an inoperable very tiny tumor on my mesenteric artery."

Not only is Kane lucky and tough, she also has a lot of friends — a pair of sold-out shows in Burbank and Solana Beach helped to raise some funds for medical and living expenses. Musicians might be flakes who cannot tell time, but they make magic with their international language — music — and are always ready to help someone in need, especially one of their own.


Candye Kane's performance Sunday will be her first since having cancer surgery on May 2. "I might be a little fragile, so I may have to do the show sitting down, but we'll see," she says.

More:
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/may/24/cancer-battle-wont-keep-candye-kane-from-at-simi/