Rush Limbaugh announced Monday that he has advanced lung cancer.
“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,” said the syndicated conservative radio host of “The Rush Limbaugh Show.’’
But “there are going to be days that I’m not going to be able to be here. Because I will be undergoing treatment,’’ said the avid cigar-smoker, adding that he has the advanced cancer.
Limbaugh, 69, said he went to the doctor after experiencing shortness of breath and was eventually diagnosed.
He has previously scoffed at the dangers of “firsthand smoke,’’ saying in 2015 that “it takes 50 years to kill people, if it does.’’
According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer, while cigar smoking is generally “associated with an increased risk for cancers of the lung,” throat and mouth. Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer of both men and women in the US, with 150,000 people a year succumbing to it.
“Now, it’s true that everybody who smokes dies. But so does everyone who eats carrots,” Limbaugh said at the time.
He added that government taxes on tobacco products “are funding children’s health-care programs.”
So “I would like a medal for smoking cigars,” Limbaugh quipped on the show — which is titled “We Really Should Thank Smokers” on his Web site.
He also ridiculed the mounds of research tying secondhand smoke to cancer and death, calling the assertion “a myth.”
Limbaugh told listeners Monday that he would be out for the next few days for treatment and hoped to return to the air Thursday.
“Those of you who are listening to the Rush Limbaugh Show now. Pray with us. Thank you. God bless you Rush Limbaugh. Love you so much Rush,’’ his producer, Bo Snerdley, tweeted.
Limbaugh, a buddy of President Trump, just signed a new “long-term’’ contract last month with a subsidiary of iHeartMedia.