Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill reveals he’s being treated for stage-three blood cancer
Sam Neill reveals he’s being treated for stage-three blood cancer in his forthcoming memoir.
“The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying,” he writes in chapter one of the book, Did I Ever Tell You This? “I may have to speed this up.”
“I found myself with nothing to do,” The Jurassic Park star told The Guardian in an interview ahead of the release. “And I’m used to working. I love working. I love going to work. I love being with people every day and enjoying human company and friendship and all these things. And suddenly I was deprived of that. And I thought, ‘what am I going to do?’
“I never had any intention to write a book. But as I went on and kept writing, I realised it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, ‘I’ll write about that tomorrow … that will entertain me.’ And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn’t have gone through that with nothing to do, you know.”
Per The Guardian, Neill first experienced swollen glands while doing publicity for Jurassic World Dominion in March last year and was soon diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
The 75-year-old actor will be on chemotherapy medication for the rest of his life, although he is now cancer-free.
“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” he said. “But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive.”
This story is being updated
