Around 15% of lung cancer patients have never smoked yet 20% of Canadians have less sympathy for those with lung cancer compared to other cancers. This was the case for Torontonian singer/songwriter Joseph Neale who beat lung cancer and continues to spread his message through music.
Mediaplanet: Can you tell us about your battle with lung cancer and how it influenced your music?
Joseph Neale: My battle with cancer was scary and traumatic — yet very sobering. Times of peace, followed by times of intense stress and depression. Lung cancer took my idol, Haydain Neale, and three years later it changed my life. Studying the mind, universe, spirituality, and finances took my brain away from cancer and I began to focus on my future. I have dreams of raising $1 billion for Cancer Research, like Paul Alofs and the Princess Margaret Foundation. In the future, I’d like to spend time curing cancer, poverty, and ignorance beginning with being a musical influence.
What do you wish more people knew about lung cancer?
Lung cancer is not only a smoker’s disease. When I was diagnosed, I never smoked a cigarette and I wasn’t around much second hand smoke. I was diagnosed with different diseases before it was confirmed as lung cancer. Since lung cancer originates in the lungs, the majority of the population believes it must be from smoking without realizing that 15% of lung cancer patients are non-smokers. Most ads against smoking focus on developing lung cancer and the ads really invoke more fear than curiosity for a cure. My goal is to make more awareness and funding available to the least funded and most fatal cancer.
What advice would you give to anyone trying to start their music career or battling lung cancer?
My battle with cancer was scary and traumatic, yet very sobering. Times of peace, followed by times of intense stress and depression. Lung cancer took my idol, Haydain Neale, and three years later it changed my life. Studying the mind, universe, spirituality and finances took my brain away from cancer and I began to focus on my future. I have dreams of raising $1 billion for Cancer Research like Paul Alofs and the Princess Margaret Foundation. In the future, I’d like to spend time curing cancer, poverty and ignorance beginning with being a musical influence.
To anyone working on their musical career, focus on the artists you’d compete with. Mimic what they do but keep originality. It’s a strange duality, but creativity combined with rational music sense will make a perfect product to promote. Maintain a social media presence on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram while keeping your performance as similar to your recordings as possible. Spotify and iTunes are you best friends for sharing your music.
Find me and I’ll help: @JOIITV, @IAMJOSEPHNEALE, @GO7MUSIC.
