Three months ago, Ashley Monroe shared a video of her ringing the “no more chemo” bell. On Thursday (March 3), she shared that she won’t immediately need additional chemotherapy to fight a rare blood cancer.
The cancer is gone for now.
“My blood work looked amazing and normal and so did my scans,” the singer and Pistol Annies group member writes. “They say this kind is incurable, but I’m just gonna believe it IS curable, and it’s gone forever.”
In July, Monroe shared that she’d been diagnosed with Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM), also known as lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. Only 1,000 to 1,500 people are diagnosed with it each year (per the American Cancer Society), and it’s most common in older men. At the time she shared that it’s very “live with-able” and treatment exists to fight the effects. The now 35-year-old was scheduled to begin chemotherapy immediately. During this most recent Instagram post, she shared that she underwent her sixth treatments in mid-December.
“That was truly one of the most difficult seasons of my life,” Monroe writes. “I didn’t know it was possible to feel so sick and defeated. BUT, I believe it was meant to be and I know it has made me a better person.”
Artists including Maren Morris, Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert celebrated this news with her in the comments section. The two photos are of her with her son Dalton, who turns five years old this summer.
Monroe’s most recent album was a more pop-influenced project called Rosegold, released in April 2021. Since 2011 she’s released three additional, critically-acclaimed solo albums while also joining Lambert and Angaleena Presley for three Pistol Annies albums. Thursday’s post adds that she’s ready to begin a new project.
PICTURES: See Inside Miranda Lambert’s Rural Tennessee Estate
Miranda Lambert paid $3.4 million in 2016 for her rural estate an hour south of Nashville, which comprises 400 acres of lush green farmland. The property includes rolling hills, rustic living spaces and an enormous horse barn, as well as three residences, a lake with a boathouse and a six-bay garage. There are 75 acres of fenced-in pastureland, as well as lighted walking trails that wind through the woods leading to a pavilion, with seating for 60 for private concerts.