NEIGHBOURS legend Ian Smith gave a health update amid his terminal cancer battle.
Back in December last year, the former actor revealed with pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma.
This was just before he after 37 years on-screen when he received the devastating news.
He first appeared as Harold Bishop back in January on 1987 and has been a staple on ever since.
However, Ian, 86, gave an optimistic update on the Australian breakfast programme, The Morning Show.
Speaking on Channel Seven this week, the star admitted that he was ‘having the easiest ride’ during his appearance.
He admitted: “I have got cancer. I know that because doctors tell me I have.
“But apart from that... No pain. I was supposed to die in March ... I am having the easiest ride, seriously.”;;
Although his prognosis looked grim and the disease was described as “non-fixable,”;; by doctors, the actor has been placed on an experimental treatment plan.
He jokingly described himself as a “guinea pig”;; as he reveals that he has ‘defied expectations.
Ian added: “I want to go forever ... I don’t want to play Harold anymore, but I don’t want to stop acting.”;;
“I’ve possibly never felt better. Everyone looks at me and says, ‘Look at your hair.’
“They are all jealous I’ve got so much hair. I went through the treatment, started to lose my hair and went totally bald. I then went onto the immunotherapy and got a head full of hair... not just hair, but curly hair.”;;
The star also said that he hoped to live for more than doctors first anticipated, saying he wants at least another “year, maybe two.”;;
Despite quitting the popular soap, Ian says that he still wants to get involved in the art form that he loves so much.
He admitted: “I’m not cured, but I’m here. And I feel fine.”;;
He had previously been told he was expected to die by March this year, but thankfully he’s been able to extend his life thanks to immunotherapy which
He previously , as he remarked: “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.
“Although the oncologist can’t tell me that, they said because this cancer is so rare, so drastic, so severe, so awful, they don’t know, they don’t know what it’s going to do.”;;
“After my last treatment I asked, ‘How long do I have to keep going with these treatments?’,”;; he added, explaining he was told he can stop at any time.
[I’m having] no pain. I was supposed to die in March ... I am having the easiest ride, seriously
Ian SmithChannel Seven
“[The doctor] said ‘No. We know so little about this cancer that we don’t know that if you stop taking the treatments, it may roar back into life’.
“So I said: ‘Look, for an hour’s treatment every three weeks I think I can put up with that’ and it looks like these very clever people are going to keep me alive.”;;
The star left viewers in tears after filming his emotional final scenes in Neighbours.
Harold announced he was moving across the country away from Ramsay Street to Port Douglas, Queensland.
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