The 78-year-old Kiwi actor was diagnosed with stage 3 blood cancer four years ago, but says he is now cancer-free thanks to an innovative form of treatment.
“I’ve been living with a particular type of lymphoma. I was on chemotherapy and the pretty miserable business but it was keeping me alive,” Sam told 7News Australia.
“Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal, obviously.”
Sam ultimately underwent a clinical trial for CAR T-cell therapy in Australia to train his immune cells to recognise and destroy his cancer, and he says the results have been remarkable.
“I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body. That’s an extraordinary thing. I’m very, very excited that this can happen.”
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The actor says he is advocating for others in Australia, New Zealand and around the world to be able to access the treatment and linked to the Snowdome Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that says it raises funds to support research and clinical trials.
Speaking to Sky News after the tome’s release, Sam said: “The cancer thing came out as a corollary to the release of the book, which is a memoir that I wrote when I was under chemo. I’m doing absolutely fine now. What was slightly annoying was that the story was sort of ‘cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer’, and really the other half of the story is ‘remission, remission and remission – and I’m absolutely fine.”
Then, in 2024, Sam admitted that he wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for the advancements in medicine to treat cancer.
Speaking on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast, he said: “I’m in remission and as you see, I’m hard at work and enjoying life immensely.
“I’m very grateful for not just the wonderful care I’ve had from doctors and nurses and so on, but also the strides that have been made in treating these things in the last few years.”
