Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood has revealed how he prepared to say goodbye to his young family after he received his lung cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

The 70-year-old rocker shared how he kept his disease a secret and how it led to the darkest period of his life.

He also faced the diagnosing decision on whether to go ahead with chemotherapy to treat his illness.

"I've had a fight with a touch of lung cancer. There was a week when everything hung in the balance and it could have been curtains, time to say goodbye," said the father of 6.

Ronnie Wood made the decision to quit smoking a week before his one-year-old twins Gracie and Alice were born.

His diagnosis came 3 months ago during a routine medical appointment with Richard Dawood, the band's doctor.

That's when Dawood asked to check the star's heart, lungs and blood.

"I said go for it," recalled Wood. "And then he came back with the news that I had this supernova burning away on my left lung. And to be totally honest, I wasn't surprised."

He knew that he hadn't had a chest X-ray since he was at Cottonwood, a rehab clinic in Tucson, AZ in 2002.

The star's third wife, Sally, who is 31 years younger than him, stood by his side during the tests to see if his condition had spread beyond his lungs.

"If that had happened, it would have been all over for me. So there was this one week when I didn't know what was happening," Wood said. "Sally was amazing. It's only since we've got through it that she has been able to tell me how it was the worst seven days of her life."

No matter what happened, the star was adamant not to undergo chemotherapy.

Continue to the next page to find out why and the status of his condition.

The guitarist who joined the Rolling Stones more than 40 years ago, admits that considering everything he has been through, he has been very lucky. As one of the most notorious hell-raisers in rock history, Wood enjoyed a "love affair" with drugs and alcohol spanning decades.

"I had this thought after I gave up smoking, 'How can I get through 50 years of chain-smoking, and all the rest of my bad habits, without something going on in there?' 'Someone up there must like me," he said.

Known for his iconic hair, the aging musician didn't want to loose the look that people recognize him for.

"I was prepared for bad news but I also had faith it would be OK. Apart from the doctors, we didn't tell anyone because we didn't want to put anyone else through the hell we were going through," he said. "But I made up my mind that if it had spread, I wasn't going to go through chemo, I wasn't going to use that bayonet in my body."

"It's more I wasn't going to lose my hair. This hair wasn't going anywhere," he concluded.

A week later the doctors came back with the news that the cancer hadn't spread. It was time to have the surgery to remove the mass and begin his fight.

The rocker is now said to be fine, and will be getting check-ups every 3 months to make sure he stays that way!

The Rolling Stones are going on tour in September with 14 gigs lined up across Europe.

This health scare served as a warning to Wood, "People have to get checked. Seriously have to get checked. I was bloody lucky but then I've always had a very strong guardian angel looking out for me. By rights I shouldn't be here."

Sources: Daily Mail / The Guardian / CNN