Sam Neill Provides Heartbreaking Update on Cancer Battle
Sam Neill
Months after he first shared his cancer diagnosis, Sam Neill is offering an update on his health status.
The 76-year-old, who revealed in his recent memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, that he has a rare form of blood cancer called angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, spoke with Australian Story about his ongoing treatment. During the conversation, Neill shared that his first round of chemotherapy didn't work, so he transitioned to an experimental and “very expensive” medicine that is currently keeping him in remission.
Unfortunately, the doctors notified Neill that the medicine he's on is likely to stop working at some point. But the New Zealand actor said, “I’m prepared for that,” telling the publication in an accompanying video interview that he's "not in any way frightened of dying. It’s never worried me from the beginning. But I would be annoyed, because there are things I still want to do.”
"Very irritating, dying, but I’m not afraid of it," Neill stated. Instead, what he is really afraid of is having to retire from acting, saying that it "fills me with horror."
While the “grim and depressing” drug that Neill has to take—which his doctors upped from monthly to bi-weekly doses—leaves him feeling like he went “10 rounds with a boxer," he carries on, noting, "It’s keeping me alive.” So far, the drug has helped keep Neill's cancer in remission for 12 months.
The Jurassic Park actor had to take a break in 2022 from acting to receive treatment. However, he still has many projects lined up, including the crime thriller Bring Him to Me, coming out later this year, and the TV adaptation of the Liane Moriarty book Apples Never Fall.
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