James Bourne has shared new details of his ongoing health issues after a year of struggles, declaring he’s ‘still alive and kicking’ thanks to his brother donating a kidney.
The 43-year-old Busted star teased several months back that he would be revealing more following a period of absence from social media.
James wrote on X, having deleted his Instagram account already: ‘As I’m taking a break from the gram, I’ll be posting an update soon about what’s going on with my health in my Spotify bio . It’s a long story. Still not out of the woods yet. Thanks for your support and patience.’
Now, the Year 3000 singer has shared that he had just a few years to live before the procedure.
‘Wow, what the hell happened? One minute you’re heading out on tour, the next thing you know you’re on the bench and out of the game,’ he penned.
‘My condition was serious and the doctors told me I had a few years left to live.
‘I’m happy to share now that my youngest brother, Chris, who stepped in for me on tour last year, has saved my life yet again. This time quite literally by donating me one of his kidneys.
‘I can’t believe how much better I’m starting to feel already.’
‘I’m still going to need some time, but I wanted you to know that we’re both recovering from surgery just fine,’ James concluded.
‘My brother is a hero.’
James’s ailments first made headlines when he was forced to pull out of the Busted vs McFly tour, a mere 24 hours before the first concert.
In his announcement, he apologised to fans but said it had become clear over the past week that he was ‘not in good enough health’ to play the shows, expressing his gratitude for the support of his girlfriend and his family.
Younger brother Chris did, indeed, take his place, playing guitar alongside James’s original bandmates Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis, who admitted they were close to scrapping the tour completely but went ahead with it to fulfil James’s wishes.
Speaking to the crowd as the tour kicked off, Matt declared that ‘health is wealth’, sharing how much they ‘love’ and ‘miss’ James, who was ‘really f***ing sick’, and it felt ‘weird’ to be playing without him.
Matt later told Metro that he never wants to repeat that time, as they had ‘never done a show without James’.
‘We were talking to him, and he was like, “You should still do it, I just can’t be there.” It was a really difficult time for us. It all happened so quickly,’ he recalled.
‘It was strange; it was weird. I don’t ever want to do it again,’ the 43-year-old added to us.
At the time, James also explained that there was ‘still a lot of information [he] didn’t have’ about his condition. Still, he insisted it was a ‘unanimous’ decision that he should sit out of the gigs to prioritise his recovery.
Then, in April this year, after six months of silence, the Crashed the Wedding vocalist revealed he was due to undergo ‘major surgery’ that should ‘extend [his] life’.
Declaring that ‘there is hope’, James added that the operation should ‘make [him] well enough’ to return to making music and performing live, which is what he ‘loves the most’.
‘It really sucks to be out of the game. But there is hope,’ he penned, without specifying what the procedure would entail.
Throughout his health ordeal, James has continued focusing on his art, having worked away behind the scenes on a new record, which he dropped this summer.
Titled Murder At The Gates, the album was the first James produced himself.
Speaking to The Sun ahead of its release, James shared: ‘I didn’t want my health to stop me from promoting this project because I’ve put 13 years of my life into it.
‘There was a fear of not finishing it. But I knew I had to finish it and give this to the people.’