Luke Menard Cancer Free

In this holiday season, I am pleased to pass on the wonderful news I just read on

Season 7's Luke Menard. According to Access Hollywood, Luke has been given the all-clear from cancer. As you might recall, Luke was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier this year shortly after leaving Idol. According to this newspiece, Luke still has more than a dozen radiation treatments to go to target the scar tissue left following months of chemotherapy, but he is thrilled to end 2008 with happy news.

Luke says, "We were always praying for this news - to be cancer free. When you're going through chemo, it's kind of a one-day at a time thing. You don't know how you're gonna feel when you wake up in the morning and sometimes you're kind of sick and you're throwing up.

"It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's definitely been a year to remember and a year to forget - being on American Idol, and days after I was eliminated being told I had cancer. It's been a crazy year."

And to help out, most of his medical bills were taken care of by people concerned for him:

"All the producers from American Idol, 19 Entertainment ... David Cook, who won American Idol, ... he has been extremely helpful, even financially with medical bills. 19 Entertainment has helped out with medical bills, so it's been way more than I expected."

Luke has been touring with an a cappella group Chapter 6 and released an album with them called “With The Windows Down” on December 2. He's also been writing music - focusing on writing Christian music - an has even collaborated with AI6's Chris Sligh.

You can keep track of Luke at his blog located here.

Best to you, Luke!