All signs point to the cancer going into remission.
Sam Neill was diagnosed with stage three blood cancer. The famous actor who played Dr. Alan Grant in the “Jurassic Park” films reported that he had been successfully treated. For his part, Neill said in an interview published on March 17, “I’m not off the hook as such, but there’s no cancer in my body.”
After experiencing swollen glands during publicity appearances for “Jurassic World Dominion,” the 75-year-old Jurassic Park actor was reportedly diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in March of last year. “I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me,” Neill told The Guardian.
“The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying. I may have to speed this up,” he continued. “I found myself with nothing to do. 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?”
Last year, when Neill was getting treatment, he began penning personal vignettes to pass the time and ease the pain of his illness. “I never had any intention to write a book. But as I went on and kept writing, I realized 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.”
Moreover, he stated that his book is not a cancer memoir; the author’s disease is referred to as a “spiral thread” throughout the story, saying, “I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments. 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.”
The actor opened up more, saying there are “dark days.” One of those was his first round of chemotherapy, which caused him to lose his hair. He even stated in his memoir that when he looks in the mirror, “there’s a bald, wizened old guy there,“ stressing, “More than anything, I want my beard back. I don’t like the look of my face one bit.”
“I’m not afraid of dying,” he asserted. “What I don’t want to do is to stop living because I really enjoy living.” While this story of him brought tears and sympathy from his fans, they can now celebrate as the “Peaky Blinders” actor is now cancer-free and stays positive.
He detailed his cancer journey, remarking, “I’ve regarded it as an adventure, quite a dark adventure, but an adventure nevertheless. And the good days are just fantastic, and when you get some good news, it’s absolutely exhilarating.” In an interview published in Guardian Australia, Mr. Neill is cancer-free after switching to a new anti-cancer drug that he will take for the rest of his life.