Sam Neill Reveals Cancer Diagnosis for the First Time

The 'Jurassic Park' star will detail his health journey in his upcoming memoir.

Sam Neill is getting candid about his cancer diagnosis.

The Jurassic Park star revealed that he has been battling stage 3 blood cancer since last year.

His journey with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma will be detailed in his upcoming memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?

While speaking with The Guardian to promote the book, the 75-year-old also opened up about his diagnosis, noting that he’s just “pleased to be alive.”

"I can't pretend that the last year hasn't had its dark moments," he explained, adding, "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."

The actor elaborated that he’s dealing with a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which requires chemotherapy once a month, a treatment he believes he will likely need for the rest of his life.

While he noted that his first chemotherapy treatment was unsuccessful, he’s confident in the new monthly drug, which has, thus far, prevented the cancer from returning.

Neill revealed that he first learned of his diagnosis after experiencing swollen glands last March while doing a press tour for Jurassic World Dominion.

During that time, he began writing accounts from his time undergoing treatment.

"I found myself with nothing to do," he explained. "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?'”

While he clarified that he “never had any intention” of writing a book, he realized it was giving him a “reason to live.”

“I would go to bed thinking, 'I'll write about that tomorrow … that will entertain me.' And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn't have gone through that with nothing to do, you know," he noted.

He emphasizes that the book is not a cancer memoir, but that the illness is a “spiral thread” woven throughout it.

You can pre-order the book now—it hits shelves next week on Tuesday, March 21.