Actor Sam Neill reveals battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma while promoting Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic Park star Sam Neill revealed that he also battled stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during his tour promoting Jurassic World last year.

75 years old told the BBC in an interview on Friday, he first learned of his diagnosis in March 2022 after discovering lumpy glands in his neck.

Neil initially thought his prospects were bleak: “I’m a crook, I’m dying,” he told the BBC were his first thoughts.

Fortunately, Neil said he’s now in remission, although he still faces “dark days” and tough challenges, such as losing his hair during his first round of chemotherapy — a treatment he’s still receiving even though his tumors are gone.

“Most of all, I want my beard back,” Neil told the BBC. “I don’t like the look of my face at all.”

According to Mayo Clinic. It is most common in people over the age of 60 or in people with suppressed immune systems.

Although cancer has been a difficult obstacle for Neal, he said he prefers to focus on the positives and live life to the fullest.

“I am not afraid of death. What I don’t want to do is stop living because I really love living,” Neill told the BBC. “I saw it as an adventure, a pretty dark adventure, but an adventure nonetheless. And the good days are just fantastic, and when you get good news, it’s absolutely thrilling.”

Neill told the BBC that his “fiercely aggressive” cancer inspired him to start writing about his life – a distraction that turned into a fascination with the Sharp Eyes actor, and the stories he wrote quickly turned into full-fledged memoirs about his illness and his 50-year career, “Have I Ever Told You That?”

“I didn’t think I had a book, I just thought I’d write some stories. And I found it increasingly fascinating,” Neill told the BBC. “After a year, not only did I write the book – I didn’t have a ghostwriter – but it came out in record time.”

He added that his book is not about cancer, but about his life experiences, such as meeting Barbra Streisand.

“The last thing I want is for people to be obsessed with cancer, because I’m not really interested in cancer,” Neal said. “I don’t really care about anything but life.”