Barry Manilow, the legendary gay singer with a massive string of hits and songwriting credits to his name, has announced he is battling lung cancer. The LGBTQIA Nation newswire reported on Monday that Mr Manilow had released a dignified statement and thanked fans for their continued support. While the diagnosis compelled the singer to cancel the remainder of his seasonal “Christmas: A Gift of Love” concerts, which fundraise for numerous charities, he said he plans to resume his live performances in February. “As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” he wrote. “My wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK.” The MRI revealed a “cancerous spot” on his left lung that will require surgical removal, he wrote. Though he added that it’s “pure luck” and “good news” that doctors discovered the spot so early. Manilow’s “Christmas: A Gift of Love” concert series has raised millions for various charities, such as the HIV hunger charity AAP – Food Samaritans, the youth support coalition Boo2Bullying, California chapters of The Boys & Girls Club, the low-income healthcare provider DAP Health, the disability organization Guide Dogs Of The Desert, The Judy Fund against Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as numerous other human and animal shelter charities, and also the Manilow Music Project to aid music education in underfunded public schools. Mr Manilow said that he would be taking no chemo therapy and that there was no need for this or any other intervention at this stage. He quipped that he would be on the sofa, recovering this winter and watching reruns of I Love Lucy, a 1960s sitcom on American network television. Mr Manilow began his career playing gay bathhouses with his piano, and built up a loyal LGBTQIA audience in the seventies. However, he only came out at the age of seventy three, to enormous love from fans and the wider LGBTQIA communities alike.