Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi to Raffle Gibson Guitar for Hospital Cancer Unit

It’s important to give back. Now that I’ve gotten that very obvious statement out of the way, let’s get to who’s doing the giving this time—Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. As reported by BBC News, Iommi is going to raffle off one of his own Gibson SG guitars in efforts to raise money for the hospital where he was treated for cancer. Aww.

Iommi, 77, was treated at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, United Kingdom back in 2013 after being diagnosed with lymphoma. After four years, Iommi shared that his cancer had gone into remission, with him going into surgery in 2017 to get a noncancerous lump removed from his throat.

He joined staff at the hospital earlier today (Wednesday, November 5) to announce the launch of the fundraising drive, hoping to raise £150,000 (about $195,625) to renovate Heartlands’ cancer treatment center.

Iommi told BBC:

“It was a terrible shock. It’s really hard when you’re going through that. You just never think until you’re in that situation, and I know how difficult it is, and how they feel. I like to be able to give something back and be involved and help.”

About how he was treated at Heartlands specifically, he said:

“The more comfortable you can make the patient, the better. I know when I was in, they treated me so well, that everybody was so nice, the nurses were nice, everybody was great. To have the right environment means a hell of a lot.”

The raffle isn’t live yet, but Iommi has confirmed he’ll make the announcement on social media once it is. Fuck cancer!