Jurassic Park star Sam Neill gives an update on ‘grim’ cancer battle

Sam Neill has given fans an update on his heath after being diagnosed with stage-three blood cancer.

The Jurassic Park star, 76, says he feels ‘great to be alive’ after undergoing gruelling treatment while filming his series The Twelve in 2022.

‘It just meant that every second week it was a case of forget about the weekend because that would be a bit grim,’ he told the Herald Sun.

‘But other than that, it’s great to be alive and working and in beautiful places, like York.’

Sam revealed last year he found out he had cancer in 2022 during his first trip back to New Zealand after lockdowns made returning home to see his family virtually impossible for two years.

His son Tim told Australian Story his dad had been back in New Zealand for barely an hour when a doctor phoned with the awful news he had cancer.

‘When he hung the phone up and we sat down, and we had a little bit of a cry together. It was supposed to be a happy day. He didn’t get to stay,’ Tim said.

Sam continued: ‘I was in really a fight for my life. And everything was a new world and a rather alarming world.

‘I had three or four months of reasonably conventional chemotherapies which are, brutal.’

Tim went to visit his dad as he underwent chemotherapy and was horrified when he saw how weak he was. 

‘I was shocked, and I broke down and I could barely hug him. He was just, you know, bones and skin. And then he was giving me a hard time for being upset about it and saying I was stressing him out, but I was going, “What are you talking about, Dad?”‘

Just when they thought Sam’s health might be improving, he received even worse news: The cancer was back and it was more serious this time.

Sam was eventually put on an experimental cancer drug, which thankfully started to work.  

He has been in remission for almost two years now, but admitted he is ‘prepared’ for the fact that it will eventually stop working.

‘I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it,’ he said of the disease.

Sam now has infusions every two weeks and will do so for the rest of his life or until the drug stops working.

The sessions are gruelling, ‘very grim and depressing’, he said. 

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