Sam Neill’s fans were left worried about the Jurassic Park actor’s health after his stage three cancer diagnosis was revealed.
Neill, has since taken to social media to assure his fans that there’s no need to worry as he’s “alive and well”, and in remission.
In the video posted to Instagram, the New Zealand actor commented that his health “seems to be all over the news at the moment”.
“It’s sort of, ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!’, which is slightly tiresome because as you see, I am alive and well, and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good,” he said.
“I’m alive and kicking and I’m going to work and I’m very happy to be going back to work,” Neill adds.
The actor was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a rare type of blood cancer) after experiencing swollen glands during the publicity tour for Jurassic World Dominion.
Neill’s diagnosis was first revealed by The Guardian, when the outlet reported that the opening chapter of his new memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? contained the line, “The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying. I may have to speed this up.”
According to Neill, he decided to write the book after being given the difficult news by his doctor.
“I thought I need to do something, and I thought, ‘Shall I start writing?’ I didn’t think I had a book in me, I just thought I’d write some stories. And I found it increasingly engrossing,” he told the BBC.
While the book isn’t a cancer memoir, Neill told The Guardian that the illness forms a “spiral thread” through his work.
Neill underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy to treat the cancer, but when it didn’t work as well as hoped, the 75-year-old was moved onto a new chemotherapy drug.
Neill is now officially cancer free but he will need to continue taking the chemotherapy drug monthly, for the rest of his life.
This month, Neill begins the filming for Peacock series Apples Never Fall, an adaptation of the Liane Moriarty novel of the same name, starring alongside Annette Benning, Alison Brie and Jake Lacey.
Did I Ever Tell You This? will be released on March 21, 2023. Pre-order here.
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