Olivia Williams' cancer is 'not cured'
Actress Olivia Williams says her cancer is "not cured" but it is "being managed" six years after she was first diagnosed.
Olivia Williams' cancer is "not cured" but it is "being managed" six years after she was first diagnosed.
The 55-year-old actress found out she had a rare type of pancreatic cancer back in 2018, but she underwent treatment she now describes herself as "living" with the disease and insists she's more likely to be killed falling off her bicycle than dying of cancer.
She told The Independent newspaper: "You may have a diagnosis of cancer and it might kill you, or something else might kill you, but you bet that you’re much more likely now to be living with cancer.
"That is the new reality and that’s what I’m doing now. My cancer is not cured. It is being managed. That doesn’t mean I’m going to die next week.
"I’m probably much more at risk of being knocked off my bicycle because there are insufficient bicycle lanes in London than I am to die of this cancer."
'The Crown' star is now an ambassador for the Pancreatic Cancer UK charity after previously turning down the role over fears she wasn't high-profile enough to help, but she is glad she took up the offer.
She added to the outlet: "I have a soapbox to stand on and something worth saying, which is, ‘don’t cry for me because I’ve got cancer – help people live with cancer’. Because that’s the new normal, and there are so many people who are doing it alongside me."
Olivia previously opened up about her four-year battle to get a diagnosis, revealing doctors thought she was "delusional" and she was treated for conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, lupus and depression before a CT scan confirmed her symptoms were actually being triggered by a tumour in her pancreas.
She told Vogue magazine: "It was clear many doctors thought I was delusional. And that is a very lonely place to be.
"After the first few doctors have turned you away, even the most supportive friends and family cannot keep you company. In the consulting room, you are trying to convince everyone that you are sick. Everywhere else, you’re pretending that you’re fine."
She added after finally being diagnosed: " It had taken more than 10 doctors, across three continents, four years to track it down, but finally, I had a diagnosis ... I don’t blame the doctors for not spotting the cancer earlier. No right-minded GP orders a CT scan for an actress allergic to Champagne.
"But if a simple test had existed way back in the Harley Street consulting room, this article would be far shorter, I would still have a functioning pancreas and spleen, and Tom Beard, Alan Rickman, Luciano Pavarotti, Aretha Franklin, John Hurt, Patrick Swayze, Steve Jobs, and someone you are related to, might still be here to tell you their survival story."
