Mark Hoppus is taking his blink-182 fans through the full-circle journey of his cancer diagnosis by using the “How It Started vs. How It’s Going” social media trend.
Via his Instagram Story on Wednesday (Aug. 25), the rock band’s bassist and co-lead singer revealed text messages between him and what appears to be his doctor that launched his diagnosis in a slide titled “How it started.” In the first message, dated April 20, he writes, “Hi Jill. For the past couple days I’ve had this dull sore lump in my shoulder kind of right where it connects to my neck that could either be fatal lymphoma or a sore muscle. At what point should I be concerned and have it looked at?” While Jill responds, “I need to see you!!” Hoppus asks to come in that very day and ends up getting an appointment scheduled for the afternoon.
On the subsequent “How it’s going” slide, Hoppus is seen faintly smiling and chucking up deuces in front of the camera from his hospital room. He’s currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment, which he revealed last month is working.
One month after Hoppus’ texts, he opened up about his diagnosis in a social media statement, in which he wrote that he’s remaining “hopeful and positive” for a cancer-free future while he still goes through the next few months of treatment.
The 49-year-old musician’s suspicion from the texts that he might have lymphoma — the same blood-related cancer his mother beat — turned out to be true. He disclosed he was battling a “diffuse large B-cell lymphoma” during a Q&A with Chilean Blink fans. He also described the harsh side-effects from the three rounds of chemo he’s gone through so far, saying the first one made him feel like “I was a zombie that fell onto an electric fence and was just being shocked,” while he felt very weak and tired during round two, and was violently ill during round three.
His former bandmate Tom DeLonge shared an update on how Hoppus — who recently said he was starting to feel well enough to play music for the first time since he was diagnosed — was doing last month by captioning a throwback photo of the two with, “Mark is doing well! Cancer is disappearing! But, he still has more chemo to do. As tough as it is, IT IS working! Mark is a real life superhero.”
