Sam Neill has revealed he has been battling blood cancer, but has remained in remission for the last eight months.
The 75-year-old actor, who is most known for his work in the Jurassic Park franchise, told The Guardian he had angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, or stage III blood cancer, and underwent chemotherapy.
He will remain on chemo drugs for the rest of his life, but is currently cancer free.
“I’m not off the hook as such, but there’s no cancer in my body,” Neill told the publication.
Despite being in remission, the actor has battled some “dark moments” since his diagnosis.
“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” Neill added in the interview.
“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.”
Neill has detailed his journey with cancer in his upcoming memoirs, which he began writing while undergoing treatment.
He shared a video to Instagram to give his fans an update on his health after news of his diagnosis broke, and revealed more about his book.
He said, “I’m alive and kicking and I’m going to work and I’m very happy to be going back to work.”
“We start filming in seven days’ time. I’m doing a thing called Apples Never Fall [with] Annette Bening and a really wonderful cast. Here I am, and I wish the headline wasn’t that thing because the main thing is that I have written this book, it’s called Did I Ever Tell You This?. And it does mention cancer because that’s the sort of context in which I wrote it. ”
“But I didn’t really mean to write a book, I needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment, and I am used to going to work and I suddenly couldn’t go to work. So that’s why I wrote the book, and I have to say there’s been great response to it. People seem to love it, which is great.”
“I was very nervous, obviously as a first time author. Anyway, I think it’s fun. We subtitled it Movies, Life, Love and Other Catastrophes. So it gives you an idea of all the crazy things that have happened to me.”
“So I hope you enjoy it, and let’s not worry too much about ‘all that’ because I’m fine. OK!”
When speaking to The Guardian about his upcoming memoir, Neill revealed that the opening chapter of his book contained the line, “The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying. I may have to speed this up.”
Image credits: Getty Images
This article first appeared on Over60.