Sam Neill has issued an update on his cancer, and admitted that he is not afraid of dying after his chemotherapy treatment failed to treat his disease.
The Jurassic Park star first revealed he had been diagnosed with stage 3 blood cancer back in March in his memoir Did I Ever Tell You This?.
The actor has a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma called angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. He began chemotherapy treatment, but heartbreakingly it stopped working, and so doctors reportedly began to try out a rare anti-cancer drug as a new form of treatment.
Thankfully, this drug has proved effective, and Neill has been in remission for twelve months. However, he still has to have infusions every 2 weeks.
The star told Australian Story, via JOE, that in the days after his treatment things are “very grim and depressing”, but he tries not to think too much about the disease.
“I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it,” he said, adding: “It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”
The actor revealed that he has a period of around ten days in between treatment where he feels great.
“In which I could not feel more alive or pleased to be breathing and looking at a blue sky,” he said.
However, doctors have warned the Dead Calm actor that the drugs will stop working at some point, but Neill says he’s “prepared” for when the day comes.
He claimed that dying would be “annoying” as he still has more to do in his life, but that he is “not remotely afraid” to die after pondering about his mortality since first receiving his diagnosis.
The thought of retirement, though, “fills (him) with horror.”
During his chemo treatment, Neill had to take a step back from acting, which is what prompted him to begin writing his memoir.
“I better write some of this down because I’m not sure how long I have to live,” he said.
