Sam Neill has given fans a health update two years after his blood cancer diagnosis (Picture: Don Arnold/WireImage)
Apples Never Fall star Sam Neill revealed earlier this year that he’s staying positive after being diagnosed with stage three blood cancer in 2022.
The Jurassic Park actor, 77, first noticed swollen glands in his neck while on the publicity tour for Jurassic World Dominion and later learnt he had angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
The Kiwi, who is starring in Liane Moriarty’s BBC drama series, playing former tennis coach Stan, also appeared in Australian series The Twelve, following a murder trial.
In a recent interview, Sam recalled the gruelling treatment he endured while filming The Twelve, as he updated fans on how he’s doing two years on.
‘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.’
In October last year, Sam begged fans to stop worrying about him as he explained he was taking a new drug which was successfully keeping him in remission after chemotherapy previously failed.
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However, he also said doctors told him this new drug will eventually stop working.
He told ABC’s Australian Story: ‘I’m not in any way frightened of dying. That doesn’t worry me. It’s never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.
‘I’d be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I’m not afraid of it.’
After openly discussing his treatment, Sam recorded a video message for his fans telling them not to worry about him.
Sam played Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (Picture: Universal Studios)
He said: ‘I made a passing remark that the treatment I’m on, which has me in remission, will inevitably fail one day.
‘It’s nothing to worry about. I’m in remission and plan to be in remission for many years to come.’
He went on: ‘At such time as it does fail, we’ll try something else. There are all sorts of things that are happening with cancer these days. It’s a whole new ball game.’
Sam concluded: ‘So please stop worrying, I’m getting a lot of messages on social media and from friends. Sorry to worry everybody – it’s all good, it’s all fine. It’s a beautiful day, I’m off to work.’
Sam previously said he’s ‘not interested’ in his cancer (Picture:Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images)
The Peaky Blinders actor previously said he’s ‘really not interested’ in his cancer – which he ‘can’t control’ – and would rather occupy his thoughts and time with more important things.
He previously admitted to rushing his book, which he wrote to leave his four children and eight grandchildren with ‘a sense of me’.
In recent months Sam has been promoting his new series, Apples Never Fall. On the Kelly Clarkson show in May, Sam admitted he was ‘embarrassed’ when the host mentioned that he’d changed his name to Sam from ‘Nigel John Dermot Neill’.
‘I was christened Nigel Neill – that’s like my parents giving me a disadvantage from the start,’ he quipped.
‘No, you never want to be called Nigel,’ he insisted. ‘It’s also called “Nigel No Mates,” you know, “Nigel No Friends,”
‘When I was 10, my best friend was called Nigel Nut – which is even worse – and I was Nigel Neill.
‘We liked Westerns, and we thought, “Let’s not just call ourselves Nigel, let’s have nickname.” So I was called Sam and he was called Bill, and that was the best decision I ever made.’
This article was first published on July 4, 2024.
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