However the 59-year-old Dublin resident has displayed the same fighting spirit that allowed her to battle drink and drug addiction, promising that "I will be well again, if not better than ever".
The illness has caused her to postpone a three-month long tour which would have seen her play Canada, Europe, America and the UK but as the cancer is still in its early stages, doctors share her optimism that she will soon be on the road to recovery. Her publicist confirmed that she would soon return to the stage: “Indeed, Marianne Faithfull is looking forward to playing the rescheduled tour in 2007."
She was forced to abandon another string of dates two years ago, when she collapsed on stage due to chronic exhaustion.
The acclaimed singer shot to fame in the sixties as the long-term girlfriend of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. Following their split in 1970, Marianne went on to have a acclaimed musical career of her own. After moving to Ireland, she released her seminal album Broken English in 1979 and most recently collaborated with PJ Harvey, Damon Albarn and Nick Cave in 2005’s Before The Poison.