Neighbours’ Ian Smith says cancer diagnosis left him in cruel and brutal place
Actor Ian Smith, who is famed for having played Harold Bishop in Neighbours, has said that his terminal cancer diagnosis put him in a “cruel, ugly, brutal place”.
The 86-year-old actor, known for playing the former cafe owner in the Australian soap, revealed last year that he has a rare form of lung cancer called pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma.
On Friday (April 18), Ian shared on Good Morning Britain that when he received his diagnosis he was in a “space” where “no one is there to help you”, even if they make attempts.
He added: “They (People) won’t know, until maybe it happens to them themselves. 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.”
The soap star said his oncologist cannot confirm that he is improving as his cancer is “so rare, so drastic, so severe, so awful, they don’t know what it’s going to do.”
He added the doctor told him that the medical profession knows “so little about this cancer that (they) don’t know if you stop taking the treatments, it may roar back into life”, so the actor is “putting up” with the medical therapy every three weeks.
“It looks like these very clever people are going to keep me alive,” he said.
Ian appeared on Good Morning Britain and opened up about his diagnosis(Image: ITV)
Ian previously said he has gone through chemotherapy, and been doing immunotherapy, which uses the body’s immune system to attack the cancer cells.
This month, the TV legend had his exit on the soap, saying goodbye to tuba-playing blunderer Harold, a character he has portrayed on and off since 1987, for the final time.
In February, it was announced that Neighbours would be “rested” for a second time in recent years after being revived by Amazon Prime Video following its axing by Channel 5 in 2022 – with production hoping another broadcaster will pick it up.
