Sir Ian McKellen at the New York Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
My mom was diagnosed with cancer this October past and the word has taken on a more personal meaning for me since then. I lost an uncle last month to lung cancer and my mother lost her brother. So it is with the deepest of sadnesses that I read that Sir Ian McKellen had had prostate cancer for the last six or seven years. He has mentioned that it is not life threatening.
“I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn’t know they had got it and it went on the rampage. But at my age if it is diagnosed it’s not life threatening.”
“I’ve had prostate cancer for six or seven years,” McKellen told the Daily Mirror tabloid. “When you have got it you monitor it and you have to be careful it doesn’t spread. But if it is contained in the prostate it’s no big deal.”
“I am examined regularly and it’s just contained, it’s not spreading. I’ve not had any treatment.”
He admitted he feared the worst when he heard he had the disease.
“You do gulp when you hear the news. It’s like when you go for an HIV test, you go ‘arghhh is this the end of the road?'”
Needless to say, with him returning as Gandalf, he has most certainly proven that it is NOT the end of the road.
I wish him all the very best, since he is not just an icon to me, but also my idol.
Cheers, Ian.
The Hobbit Films 