Sam Neill, who is best known for his role as Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise, has a new memoir – Did I Ever Tell You This? – coming out on March 21. The book recounts his childhood and subsequent acting career, telling stories of his life and the many things he has learned along the way.
While the book isn’t solely focused on his health, he does make a shocking announcement in the first chapter of the memoir. “The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying. I may have to speed this up,” he wrote before revealing his diagnosis with stage 3 blood cancer – Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma.
The 75-year-old actor, who has more than 150 film and television credits, experienced swollen glands in March 2022 while on a press tour for Jurassic World Dominion (2022). While his initial chemotherapy didn’t work, he is now taking a second chemotherapy drug that has him cancer-free at the moment.
With his memoir being released on Tuesday, he doesn’t want people to get the wrong idea – this is not a ‘cancer memoir,’ adding that the cancer reveal is more of a ‘spiral thread’ throughout the book. In fact, he originally had no intention of writing a book and was, instead, using writing to give him something to do.
“I found myself with nothing to do. And I’m used to working. I love working. I love going to work. I love being with people every day and enjoying human company and friendship, and all these things. And suddenly, I was deprived of that. And I thought, ‘what am I going to do?’” Neill said in a recent interview.
He talked about how his writing gave him a reason to live – something to look forward to each day – and even called it a ‘lifesaver’ in a sense. The more he wrote, the more he figured he should release it for the world to see. And soon, his fans will get to read all about the funny coming-of-age stories he has to share.
“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments. But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive,” Sam Neill continued in his interview with the Guardian last week.
More About the Disease Sam Neill Was Diagnosed With
Like we mentioned above, Sam Neill was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma in March 2022. With that said, many people are likely wondering what the disease is and what it means for Neill. According to the Lymphoma Research Center, it’s a rare and often-aggressive form of blood cancer.
“While AITL only accounts for one to two percent of all NHL cases in the United States, it is one of the more common subtypes of T-cell lymphomas. Elderly patients are more likely to be diagnosed with AITL,” the Research Center writes on their website. It’s one of the many forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
Some of the most common symptoms of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma include high fever, night sweats, skin rash, and autoimmune disorders – which can include, but are not limited to, autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) – where immune cells attack the body.
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Sharing that he was diagnosed with stage 3 blood cancer means that the ‘affected lymph nodes are found both above and below the diaphragm,’ according to the Research Center – opposed to stage 4, which implies that the cancer has started to spread throughout the body. We wish Sam Neill all the best in his recovery!
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