Delays singer Greg Gilbert: 'I was taking peppermint pills but I had bowel cancer'

When the psych-poppers’ frontman was told he was dying, it sparked an explosion of poetry and painting. As his work goes on show beside Leonardo da Vinci’s, he relives an artistic salvation

Greg Gilbert should have been having the time of his life. It was 2014 and his band, Delays, were touring the country to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Faded Seaside Glamour, which had made indie stars of them in the noughties. He had also just become a father and was engaged to his partner, Stacey.

But Gilbert was not having the time of his life. He was in almost constant pain – “pain I can’t even describe”. His weight had dropped to 8st and he was beset by anxiety so extreme that he could not contemplate taking medicine, let alone getting himself checked out properly. “The only thing I would take is peppermint capsules,” he says. “I realise now that I was taking peppermint capsules to try to treat bowel cancer.”

The GoFundMe page launched by his wife broke the site's record