Carman: I Didn’t Want to Tell My Mother I Have Cancer

When Carman was diagnosed with incurable cancer, he was stunned—but his thoughts quickly turned toward his 90-year-old mother.

“My mother had just broken her back in a fall. I didn’t want to put any pressure on her, because all she would do is worry,” says Carman, an evangelist and singer who rose to fame in the 1980s, in an exclusive interview with Charisma News.

When Carman started getting phone calls from people far and wide offering him their prayer support after the cancer diagnosis, he knew it wouldn’t take long for the news to spread like wildfire. 

“I didn’t want to tell my mother I have cancer, but I didn’t want her to find out the wrong way,” says Carman. “Then, I felt I also had an obligation to tell the people I had ministered to what was going on. I posted a message on Facebook.”

Carman wrote on his Facebook page on Valentine’s Day: “I have delayed writing this but those of you I call friends and supporters, who have prayed for me and this ministry need to know about this new battle that lies ahead. One week ago I was diagnosed with myeloma cancer. It is incurable and I’ve been given a 3- to 4-year window of time.”

Since then, Carman’s fans have flocked to his Facebook page with a show of support. He added more than 45,000 fans in February and another nearly 10,000 fans so far this month.

“I figured this kind of thing would probably get 200 or 300 responses and people would offer a few remedies and prayers. But then I was shocked. All these responses kept coming in,” Carman says. “I don’t know what it all means. I’m just trying to digest it. I guess I’ve been out there for a long time and there’s more people [who] have been affected by my music than I realized.”

Stay tuned for more from Carman’s heart as this exclusive series continues.