Delano Smith Rare Cancer Treatment Fundraiser

Delano Smith Rare Cancer Diagnosis

In February 2022, Delano Smith’s doctors discovered a golf ball sized metastatic cancer tumor growing in front of his heart. After surgery to remove the tumor, Delano underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment from April to October 2022; the doctors were hopeful that the cancer was contained. In October a follow-up discovered that the treatment had been unsuccessful and that the cancer had spread to his lower back and diagnosed it as Thymic Carcinoma, a very rare form of unpredictable cancer that is difficult to contain and treat. He was sent back for more chemotherapy and radiation.

Cancer treatment is rife with unpleasant side effects due to the chemotherapy drugs and radiation, which few patients tolerate well. Delano is currently taking 10 different medications daily for the cancer treatment and the side effects from the treatment, and he is experiencing extreme fatigue, muscle and joint pain, neuropathy in his feet, insomnia, and nausea, all of which have made it very difficult for Delano to work. He has accepted a handful of gigs for this year for the need to have some income coming in even though the process of flying and performing has been extremely challenging.

Why We Need To Raise Funds

Referred to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Center in New York by friends and colleagues, he was shepherded through the intake process based on specific aspects of his diagnosis after they determined that Delano’s particular case would benefit from their experimental treatment methods, including a specialist in thymic carcinoma treatment. After initial appointments, they found that Delano’s current health insurance does not cover any out of network treatment, thus all costs would be out of pocket for treatment at Sloan Kettering. Only an assessment with the specialist would cost thousands of dollars, then the cancer treatment could run into the hundreds of thousands.

Delano is currently experiencing a lot of pain since the cancer is in the nerve ganglion at the base of his spine. His previous treatment having proven ineffective at stopping this rare cancer, we need the specialists at Sloan Kettering and their particular methods to have hope to save his life. Delano, his family, friends and colleagues who have come together to organize this fundraiser want to thank you for reading this and appreciate your generosity at this very difficult time. Any amount is greatly appreciated. We will keep you updated on how your contributions are being utilized at Sloan Kettering and informed on Delano’s treatment and prognosis.

Fundraiser organized by: Kali Patternbraker & Navid Zahraie.

Delano Smith Biography

Of Detroit’s foundational DJs, reflecting on house and techno without Delano Smith’s influence would reveal a very different musical landscape today.

While Detroit dance music post-1988 is well documented, the events that helped it synthesize have emerged only more recently, the result of cultural research and revisionism filling in glossed, evolutionary periods of its formative stages. In this tentative era, Delano honed his skills under the guidance of the late, great Ken Collier, championing permutations of the post-Disco era, a sound termed progressive before house and techno were officially coined. Fusing soul, disco and early electronic sounds, Delano planted seeds in the minds of Detroit’s subsequent generations, influencing names who later rose under his aura to be legends themselves. His story is long and intriguing, starting in Detroit basements and dance halls, then moving smoothly to his residencies at clubs across Detroit and into his later, acclaimed international career.

The 1990s that defined Motown’s techno scene were a transitional era for the house artists who had set the stage for them, with the wider attention imbibing the urgency of this rapidly evolving sound. In response, Delano joined the DJ collective- Detroit Beatdown with long-time peers Norm Talley and Mike "Agent X" Clark. The trio offered a unique, slowed down, raw take on house, which earned Delano and his colleagues recognition as icons of the Motor City worldwide. Delano began releasing his own music in earnest from 2002 onwards, primarily on his own Mixmode imprint; in 2009, he formed a pivotal relationship with Berlin-based Sushitech Records. His trio of albums for the label, ‘An Odyssey’, ‘Twilight’, and ‘Detroit Lost Tapes’, plus many more singles, illuminate a new, modern direction for his music, fusing deep house, ambient and Detroit techno into a powerful whole and leading to the revitalization of Mixmode as the central focus for his output from 2020 onwards.

As a house and techno artist, Delano Smith has been responsible for some of the most influential records of any generation and continues to carve this legacy only on his own terms. His DJ sets remain at the forefront of current musical trends while paying deep homage to the underground roots of electronic music culture.

“Delano Smith influenced either all or most of the Techno generation” – Jeff Mills.