Sam Neill has revealed his ‘brutal’ chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with stage-three blood cancer.
The Jurassic Park star, 76, opened up about his drug regimen on the debut episode of the forthcoming ABC series, The Assembly.
‘I’m on a different one now, so at least I don’t look like somebody’s bald thumb,’ he tells a group of autistic journalism students under the tutelage of Leigh Sales.
‘That’s what I looked like for quite a while — it was embarrassing, and I lost my beard and everything, and my dignity went with it,’ he added.
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 Neill has revealed his ‘brutal’ chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with stage-three blood cancer. Pictured
The Jurassic Park star, 76, opened up about his drug regimen on the debut episode of the forthcoming ABC series, The Assembly. Pictured with son
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’m on a different one now, so at least I don’t look like somebody’s bald thumb,’ he tells a group of autistic journalism students under the tutelage of Leigh Sales
‘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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