Neighbours’ Ian Smith says he’s ‘defying the odds’ after terminal cancer diagnosis and being told he’d die this month
NEIGHBOURS veteran Ian Smith has given an update on his health after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in December.
The actor, who plays Harold Bishop on the Aussie soap, was told he would not live past March this year, but he seems to be responding well to his treatment.
Ian, 86, said “he was supposed to die in March” but seemed “to be defying the odds,” in a recent interview on BBC Radio 5 Live.
He explained he was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer called pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma.
Since his diagnosis, Ian has undergone immunotherapy treatment which has shrunken his tumours significantly, according to the actor.
Ian explained how he has a new outlook on life and he was taking the “second chance.”
“I’m now thinking of buying a new car. That’s not what you do if you’re going to die in March,” he said.
“I’m determined to have an electric car before I die. And I was speaking to a salesman. I said, ‘Now, what about the delivery? Can you get to me before I’m dead?’ And he’s so shocked! I said, ‘Come on, let’s have a giggle’.”
Ian added that despite being an atheist he was grateful to whatever force gave him another shot at life.
“I’m an atheist. I couldn’t say, ‘Thank you God’. I just had to say, ‘Thank you someone’ for giving me a second chance,” he said.
“And I took the second chance and I had to say to myself, what are you going to do with it?
“I’m still not sure I’ve worked out the answer to that, but I’m certainly not going to mope around.”
Immunotherapy is a treatment for lung cancer that uses medicine to activate a person’s immune system to identify and attack cancer cells. It “can significantly improve outcomes for patients fighting lung cancer,” according to the cancer research institute.
The Neighbours star admitted life was tough after the diagnosis and he became depressed because his cancer had become the “elephant in the room.”
“I’m in this limbo of not knowing what to plan for… I’d love to go to Japan. I’ve never been to Japan, but I just don’t trust this body to get me there and I don’t want to be a bother to anyone else,” he said.
Ian first starred as Harold on the soap in 1987 where he would go on to become one of the longest running characters on the show. He took some hiatuses from Neighbours and eventually quit the show in 2024 after his cancer diagnosis.
The actor’s onscreen wife, Madge Bishop, died from pancreatic cancer on the series, but his real wife, Gail, also died of cancer in 2019.
The pair were married for 50 years before her death and Ian said the topic of cancer is never far from his mind.
“From the time I wake up in the morning, cancer is there as a reminder all the time, you can’t get away from it,” he said on BBC Radio 5 Live.