Music has played an important part in Willi Kerr's recovery from cancer.

The 51-year-old Brighton musician spent more than three years in and out of hospital after cancer caused kidney failure in 1998.

Since undergoing treatment at seven different hospitals, where he had nine courses of chemotherapy, three courses of radiotherapy, seven operations and two stem cell transplants, Willi has been fit and well for two years.

Now, almost six years to the day since being diagnosed, he is preparing to take to the stage at Komedia, Brighton, with his band The Curst Sons to launch their first CD, A Day Late And A Dollar Short.

Willi, of Prince's Road, played in various Brighton bands in the late Seventies and early Eighties before moving to London, where he made shop displays for department stores.

He returned to Brighton more than six years ago but, in November 1997, he began to feel ill and visited his doctor.

The symptoms became worse in early 1998, when he started vomiting and he could not get out of bed. A GP took a blood test and the same afternoon Willi was sent to hospital, where he was diagnosed as having kidney failure.

Tests revealed it had been cased by multiple myeloma - cancer of the bone marrow.

The cancer had been discharging a protein into the blood that had blocked the kidneys.

Willi was treated with dialysis and drugs.

He said: "They told my sister they thought I was not going to live to the end of the week.

"But the dialysis worked, they gave me steroids and I picked up. When I was better, they gave me chemotherapy."

Nine months later, Willi returned to hospital for a stem cell transplant to build up his immunity and combat the effects of the chemotherapy, which destroys the body's immune system.

He returned to living a normal life but then, 18 months later, discovered a lump in his arm.

He said: "The doctors decided it was cancerous.

"They took it out three times but it just grew back."

Willi was sent to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in London, where surgeons cut from his arm a lump of flesh measuring the span of his hand and grafted on a piece of skin from his leg.

He then had to undergo another stem cell transplant and total body radiotherapy.

Since then, the cancer has stayed away.

For the past four years Willi has been playing with The Curst Sons, his three-man hillbilly band.

Willi is the main vocalist and plays the rhythm pole and washboard, Dave Simner is on banjo and guitar and Tim Dunkerley plays the slide guitar and mandolin.

Regarding Thursday's show Willi said: "We do play quite a lot but we don't play in Brighton that much any more so it is nice to be back."

Playing with the band has helped Willi get through his illness.

He said: "My health is fine at the moment. If I am not up to it, I do not have to play. The music has certainly helped me get better more quickly.

"A lot of recovery is due to having a positive attitude.

"If you give up, you have had it. By doing something like music, something you can put creativity into, it gives you something to look forward to the next day."

Doors open at 7pm. For tickets, call Komedia in Gardner Street on 01273 647100.