One of the most prominent radio host in the United States and Republican kingmaker, Rush Limbaugh has revealed that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Rush Limbaugh revealed to listeners on Monday that he was diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease. He said he will be taking some days off for further medical tests to determine treatment.
He said the diagnosis was confirmed on January 20, as he has been experiencing shortness of breath that he initially thought might be heart-related but turned out to be lung cancer.
Addressing his audience, he said:
“I wish I didn’t have to tell you this, and I thought about not trying to tell anybody, I thought about trying to do this without anybody knowing, because I don’t like making things about me,” Rush Limbaugh said.
But “there are going to be days that I’m not going to be able to be here, because I will be undergoing treatment, or I’m reacting to treatment.”
Limbaugh has been hosting “The Rush Limbaugh Show” in national syndication for 31 years. He is a Republican party icon and a close ally of President Trump’s.
He started his first national radio show in 1988 from New York, later relocating to Palm Beach, Florida.
The hyper-partisan broadcaster has dominated talk radio with a raucous, liberal-bashing style that made him one of the most influential voices of American right-wing politics and inspired other conservative broadcasters including Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.
Rush Limbaugh said at the end of Monday’s program that he plans to be off the air Tuesday and back on the air Thursday.
“My intention is to come here every day I can and to do this program as normally and as competently and as expertly as I do each and every day, because that is the source of my greatest satisfaction,” Rush Limbaugh said.