Sam Neill admits he’d be ‘annoyed' if he died amid cancer battle
‘Jurassic Park’ star Sam Neill has declared he's not afraid of death after battling cancer but he 'would be annoyed' because he's still got so much he wants to do.
Sam Neill is not afraid of death after battling stage-three cancer but he "would be annoyed" because he's still got so much he wants to do.
The 76-year-old 'Jurassic Park' star is in remission after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - a form of blood cancer - and he's insisted he no longer has any fear but he would find death "very irritating".
He is now on a new experimental drug that is working at fighting off his disease, but despite the promising news, the 76-year-old, who has been in remission for 12 months, knows it won't last forever.
He's been told by his doctors that one day the drug will stop working, which he says he is “prepared for”.
He told 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 his diagnosis, Sam started chemotherapy but it stopped working after three months and he switched his treatment to a rare anti-cancer drug which has led to him going into remission.
He has now been cancer-free for a year but still requires infusions every two weeks, however, he's aware the drug won't continue working indefinitely. He added: "I'm prepared for that."
Sam added of his cancer: "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 first revealed news of his cancer battle in his book 'Did I Ever Tell You This' which he started work on following his diagnosis.
Speaking to Sky News after the tome's release, he said: "The cancer thing came out as a corollary to the release of the book, which is a memoir that I wrote when I was under chemo. I'm doing absolutely fine now. What was slightly annoying was that the story was sort of 'cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer', and really the other half of the story is 'remission, remission and remission - and I'm absolutely fine."
