I'm not afraid to die... but I'd prefer to live

Jurassic Park star Sam Neill has revealed he is in remission from aggressive blood cancer. While undergoing treatment, the 75-year-old began recalling his life and career. The result is a candid, moving and ultimately uplifting memoir

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JURASSIC Park star Sam Neill crumpled as his doctor revealed the scan results. “I had stage three cancer, with tumours galore,” he says. “I needed chemotherapy.” He was in Los Angeles last summer promoting Jurassic World Dominion – his third outing as dinosaur detective Dr Alan Grant in the blockbuster six-film franchise – when swollen lymph glands sent him to the doctor.

Diagnosed with “ferocious” blood cancer, his lymphoma initially retreated under chemotherapy, but weeks later returned, raging like an angry T-Rex.

“The chemo was not working, and the tumours were on the march again,” he recalls.

Turning instead to an experimental new drug, Neill was relieved to learn recently that his cancer was in remission.

“A few hours ago I was a dying man,” he thought. “Dying with dignity. Now I’m a living man, with every intent of going on living and living and living. Dignity abandoned!”

Neill, 75, reveals his rollercoaster fight for survival in his candid new memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, which was published this week.

“I’m not off the hook as such,” he says, “but there’s no cancer in my body. I’m alive and kicking and I’m going to work.”

The Hunt For Red October star begins filming next week on his latest movie, Apples Never Fall, opposite Annette Bening, and is “very happy to be going back to work”.

Neill wrote his memoir over the past eight months while his life hung in the balance.

He began writing vignettes from his life as a way to keep busy while undergoing treatment.

“The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying,” he writes in chapter one. “I may have to speed this up.”