What to know
- Paris Black has been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic Hormone Sensitive Prostate Cancer (mHSPC).
- He’s hoping a GoFundMe boost will help him find the treatment he needs, which is not covered by OHIP.
- So far, he’s raised $50,000 of the necessary $150,000.
Toronto musician Paris Black, who recently signed a deal with Mark Berry’s label to release his music from the past decade, is hoping a renewed push will help his GoFundMe campaign reach the $150,000 he needs to get the life-prolonging treatment only available outside Canada — and not covered by OHIP.
A year ago, he received a stage 4 cancer diagnosis of metastatic Hormone Sensitive Prostate Cancer (mHSPC).
To date, just over $50,000 has been raised by 366 donations, but contributions have stalled. He has posted 46 updates since launching the fund late last March (under his birthname Paul Travers), writing detailed reports about the treatments he’s getting, the treatments he’d like, and his reactions, state of mind, and sometimes photos.
His GoFundMe page lists the cutting-edge cancer treatments that are either not fully covered or only conditionally available under Ontario’s public health system.
“I have an extremely aggressive kind of prostate cancer that has spread to my bones and my lymph nodes,” Black told Now Toronto. “All the drugs I’ve been on have kept it in check, but that could change any minute. They’ve taken a hell of a toll. I mean, I’m not the Paris Black of over a year ago at all. But I’m alive.”
Alongside his career as a musician, Black worked as a figure model. Since his diagnosis, when he feels strong enough, and with protections, like wearing a mask and social distancing, he has returned to “limited” modelling shifts at art institutions. As he reflected on the Feb. 2 update, “He used to work 12 hours days, still as a statue, on his feet. Now he reclines, for portrait drawing, his physique decimated.”
His music career began in the late-80s. His debut album, Secret Seduction, was produced by Steve Sexton, Anne Murray’s musical director for 25 years, and came out on Trend Records in Canada and Musicolor Cosmos in Germany. “I toured across the country with it. I was very lucky, I played two shows a day at high schools because I was a teeny-bopper idol at the time,” he mused.
An eponymously-titled album came next in 1991, produced by Berry, on Isba/Sony Music, then 1997’s self-produced Beat Blast, on BMG Records. In 2000, he released Hold On Tight independently, followed in 2004 by At The Gates of Troy, produced by (the late) Kenny MacLean, John Bianchini and Lou Fachin. His last release was 2010’s I’m Not Jesus, produced by Berry and Denis Martel, and released by Blue Atlantis/Universal in Canada and Attack/EMI in the U.S.
The new album, Profound and Profane —due later this year — was produced by various people: Black, Berry, Martel, Dean Hajas, and Phil Naro. AMG is distributed by Universal Music Canada.
“I have probably 25 more songs I could put on that are fully produced, but I was always putting it off because I couldn’t see how to make money in this musical environment. My wife’s always been bothering me to get this music out, then when I realized I don’t have long to live I was thinking, ‘Well, I should put it out,’” Black said.
“It helps if your good friend owns the label. Mark and I have been friends for 37 years. He’s been calling me for years, ‘Let’s get moving. This stuff’s great.’ In November, [he] and his wife took my wife and I out for dinner and presented me with a contract.” The album will come out later this year.
Meanwhile, Black remains hopeful. On Feb. 19, he received the results from his most recent IV chemotherapy. He told Now Toronto, “generally, things remain stable but the lesions on my bones appear bigger. This can be a progression of the disease or it could be bone flares as the bones repair themselves.”
One of the treatments he has been able to use, due to the GoFundMe, is the Paxman Scalp Cooling System, which helps prevent the treatment’s common side effect of alopecia. “Only about 10% hair loss,” Black wrote on January 9, and again on Feb. 2., in third person, “most of his hair has remained intact, thanks to scalp cooling technology and you, as it is not covered by government insurance. A small victory among so many defeats, but psychologically priceless.”
He has also spent $5,000 for the injectable drug Durolane to fight the arthritis in his joints. “This could easily run into $20,000 a year,” he said.
“Pluvicto and lasers are still at the top of my list, but more things are getting invented every day. I was told by my oncologist today that several promising things are in clinical trials. The weakening of my body is putting treatments I had hoped for out of reach, but I am still somehow optimistic. If I am to survive this, it will be by science. It’s still not in my nature to give up.”
