Neighbours star Ian Smith has bowed out of iconic Aussie soap after nearly four decades in the job, and has now opened up about his heartbreaking terminal cancer battle
One of Neighbours’ most treasured stars has admitted he was supposed to die last month.
Ian Smith is best known for playing Harold Bishop on the Aussie soap, bowing out earlier this month after nearly four decades on Ramsay Street. Last year, he revealed that he was suffering from terminal cancer – a rare lung cancer called pulmonay pleomorphic carcinoma.
Now aged 86, the Aussie actor – who won over the hearts of viewers as the fun-loving, bumbling Harold – has admitted doctors had only given him weeks to live. However, defying all odds, Ian is still going strong and is responding well to new and innovative treatment.
Ian revealed that he now feels “reborn” after he underwent a pioneering immunotherapy treatment, surpassing the initial prognosis medical professionals had given him. “I was supposed to die in March – I didn’t,” he joked in an interview on Australian TV show The Project, “so I’m here to talk about me dying last month.”
Speaking on his current condition, he said: “I know I’ve got cancer because doctors keep telling me I have. That’s the only way I know; I’ve got no pain – none of that.”
He also admitted that he felt incredibly lucky with the way his cancer is responding to treatment, telling ITV ‘s own Good Morning Britain on Friday (April 18) that he is blessed that the treatment is working. “It’s a cruel, ugly, brutal place, and I don’t know how, but it looks like I’m having the best luck in the world with defeating this cancer,” he said.
“Although the oncologist can’t tell me that, they said because, this cancer is so rare, so drastic, so severe, so awful, they don’t know, they don’t know what it’s going to do,” he added. He went on to say that because of the ground-breaking therapy, he was able to reduce his treatment frequency to once every three weeks, giving him some semblance of a normal life.
Ian was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer that had initially been seen as life-limiting. Called pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma, the disease was initially thought to be terminal for the longtime actor.
However, Ian was not willing to give up the fight, and became a “guinea pig” for the new treatment, and said he is now hoping that he can have an extra year or two of life. He hoped that after leaving Erinsborough, he may be able to carry on with his acting career – despite battling his illness.
“I want to go forever,” he explained. “I don’t want to play Harold anymore, but I don’t want to stop acting.”
As Harold, Ian bid a fond farewell to Ramsay Street earlier this, 38 years after arriving on the soap back in 1987. Since then, he has had a slew of intriguing storylines, including becoming the stepdad of Kylie Minogue’s character Charlene Roberts.
One of his most well-known storylines came in 1991 when Harold was presumed to have died after falling from a cliff, never to be seen again. However, he magically reappeared on the soap five years later – though after having been diagnosed with amnesia.
Leaving the street behind to move to Queensland with his granddaughter, Harold – and Ian – held back tears as he waved off his fellow stars. “This has been more than a street to me,” Harold sobbed: “you’ve been more than Neighbours; my life has been enriched by every one of you.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
