Tony Bellotto says his pancreatic cancer diagnosis has made him more aware of the value of everyday life. “Each day I wake up is more special than it was before the diagnosis,” the 66-year-old musician and writer told Folha in an interview conducted through audio messages.
Diagnosed in March 2025, Bellotto says he does not fear death, either before or after learning he had cancer. What weighs on him is the possibility of suffering at the end of life and the pain his death could cause people close to him. He says he tries to show them that he is well and prepared to face what comes, echoing a line by poet Paulo Leminski: “I don’t argue with fate; whatever comes, I sign for.”
Bellotto describes living with the disease peacefully. Awareness of mortality, he says, has become more concrete, but has not stopped him from enjoying life. Instead, he pays closer attention to ordinary moments, such as waking without pain or noticing the sky and a breeze.
The guitarist says music has become a kind of medicine. When he is playing, he says, the illness disappears from his thoughts. Performing also gives art a therapeutic role alongside medical care, though he says science has not left him without answers.
For people who have just received a cancer diagnosis, Bellotto recommends first taking a breath and approaching the situation pragmatically. “You have to eliminate the drama,” he said, adding that patients should see what science can offer. He also pointed to the stigma surrounding cancer, saying that people often treat it as a symbol of an inevitable, painful death. He hopes that, as with tuberculosis when it became treatable, cancer will lose some of that stigma.
Bellotto said he is not taking daraxonrasib, a drug he described as awaiting approval from Brazil’s Anvisa. He called for its approval and wider access, saying its current prices are prohibitive and that an important treatment should not be inaccessible to most people.
On Friday, Bellotto is scheduled to give a keynote lecture to 4,000 doctors at the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology’s congress in Rio de Janeiro. He said he does not feel qualified to advise physicians, but sees imagination as essential to artists and to asking unexpected questions. He also praised doctors who support patients and preserve hope, including through care that can ease suffering when a cure is not possible.
Sources: Folha Ilustrada.