During an interview with The Guardian about his memoir, Sam Neil reveals that he is currently being treated for stage-three blood cancer. Despite this, he refuses to let his fear define his life.

During publicity for Jurassic World: Dominion, he started to experience swollen lymph glands and was then diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. He was then put on chemotherapy but switched to a newer chemotherapy drug. He is currently cancer-free, but he will continue taking monthly doses of the drug for the rest of his life.

His new book Did I Ever Tell You This? was originally a series of vignettes he wrote as he was receiving treatment to stave off boredom and loneliness. While he never intended to write a book, “it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live, and I would go to bed thinking, ‘I’ll write about that tomorrow … that will entertain me.’” Despite being born from his treatment, Neill did not intend for it to be a cancer memoir but instead wrote it as a “spiral thread” that intersects his life story.

In both his memoir and interview, he does not shy away from describing his fears and depression during his initial chemotherapy. Even so, he states that his dark days help bring to light the brighter ones, from his life to his friends to his family. He is grateful for the life that he has lived and will continue to move forward in any way he can. “I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me,” he says. “Because I’d really like another decade or two, you know? We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big. But as for the dying? I couldn’t care less.”