My Sharona

she's fighting cancer. you know, the knack's my,my,my,my,my sharona. what a great song. from the las vegas sun, who tried but failed to beat the nuclear dump.

oday: July 18, 2006 at 8:7:8 PDT

John Katsilometes relates a startling e-mail from Sharona - yes, of 'My Sharona' - Alperin, who today is a successful real estate agent in a battle with cancer

"It was just destiny - a-destiny."

Sharona Alperin wrote back to me on Sunday night. She is the one and only Sharona named in the iconic Knack song "My Sharona." I'd heard she was fighting cancer in Los Angeles and last week, in the days preceding the Knack concert at the Hard Rock Hotel pool, I asked her about her health and life.

Sunday night she got back to me with a remarkable e-mail - for those of us who remember listening to the seemingly endless repetition of "My Sharona" as teenagers, reading a note from the actual Sharona is heady stuff.

Sharona is known as a "Realtor to the Stars" in Los Angeles and is still asked about the song daily (the band released the song in 1979 when she was just 17; so she's learned to play along). She is indeed battling cancer ­- which started in her colon and spread to her liver - and has undergone 12 rounds of chemotherapy. Last week she underwent an MRI and this week has a PETscan scheduled.

"I've been in a lot of physical pain, but also very much alive and enjoying my very beautiful life," Sharona wrote. "I have two fantastic children, 7 and 3, a gorgeous husband, inside and out, who I am madly in love with, great career, awesome friends. All's great except that I have cancer."

Sharona meets with her doctors on July 28, when she will be told of the results of her latest battery of tests. "I'm praying for the best," she said. "In the meantime, I'm still rockin' and rollin'."