OTAGA, NEW ZEALAND; Sam Neill has opened up about his courageous battle with stage-three-blood cancer and expressed that he is unafraid of dying.
Speaking to Australian Story, the 'Jurassic Park' star said his most recent round of chemotherapy has failed to deliver the desired results.
However, he remains resolute in not allowing the illness to dictate his life, according to Daily Mail.
Sam Neill says he is 'annoyed' as there are 'things I still want to do'
The 76-year-old actor said, "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."
He shared a series of pictures from his time undergoing the treatment which provided a stark contrast to his familiar appearance with his salt-and-pepper beard.
"There were times in the last year where I had to look at myself in the mirror and I wasn't a pretty sight,' he told the ABC, adding "I was stripped of any kind of dignity."
Sam Neill said his disease is 'out of my control'
Despite the challenges, an anti-cancer drug has helped the actor in remission for nearly a year. However, he admitted that he is "prepared" for the possibility that this treatment would 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 stage-three blood cancer, a non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
What is non-Hodgkin lymphoma?
Sam previously revealed he has been diagnosed with "a ferocious type of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma," a disease known as Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL), according to the National Organization for Rare Diseases.
It is a "group of related malignancies (cancers) that affect the lymphatic system (lymphomas)” and the lymphomas "are a cancer of white blood cells (lymphocytes) and can be divided depending on the type of cells, B-lymphocytes (B-cells) or T-lymphocytes (T-cells)."
Sam Neill disclosed news of sudden illness in his memoir
The 'Peaky Blinders' actor whose memoir 'Did I Ever Tell You This' which he wrote as a distraction to give him a "reason to get through the day," first disclosed the news of his cancer diagnosis.
Speaking to The Guardian, Sam said, "The thing is, I'm crook. I may have to speed this up. 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?'', he said in the interview.
