Neighbours legend, 86, ‘defying odds’ amid terminal cancer treatment as they share rare update after soap exit
Neighbours star Ian Smith has revealed his cancer treatment “seems to be working” despite initially being told he would die in March 2025.
The 86-year-old actor, who played Harold Bishop in the Australian soap, is now “defying the odds” after receiving immunotherapy for a rare form of lung cancer.
Smith was diagnosed with pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma last year, which doctors had described as “very aggressive, non-fixable cancer”.
In a new interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Smith shared the positive news about his improving health condition where the immunotherapy treatment, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight the disease, has helped shrink his tumours significantly.
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After initially being told “he was supposed to die in March,” Smith explained he was now “defying the odds”.
Now the 86-year-old had been given “a year, maybe two” to make the most of. His oncologists were also “very happy” with his progress “because I think they think they’re going to be famous!”
“It’s not a cure and it won’t be a cure,” Smith added in a more sombre moment, before acknowledging that the treatment has given him valuable extra time.
“I’m now thinking of buying a new car. That’s not what you do if you’re going to die in March,” he told host Adrian Chiles.
“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,”” he shared.
Explaining his mirth, Smith said: “I took the second chance and I had to say to myself, what are you going to do with it?”
Despite the positive news, Smith admitted he is suffering “a lot from depression” as cancer remains “the elephant in the room”.
Smith, who lost his wife Gail to cancer in 2019 after more than 50 years of marriage, said the disease is a constant presence. “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.
“I’m in this limbo of not knowing what to plan for.”
Speculating, the 86-year-old said he would like to visit Japan but admitted he didn’t “trust this body to get me there and I don’t want to be a bother to anyone else.”
Smith first appeared as Harold Bishop on Neighbours in 1987 and became one of the soap’s most recognisable faces.
After leaving in 2009, Smith made several brief appearances before making a permanent return in 2022.
He left the Australian soap in December 2024 after revealing his cancer diagnosis, with producers promising him a fitting send-off.
When he first revealed his diagnosis in December, Smith said he wanted to “be a guinea pig” for treatment options.
The actor said he had put his hand up for experimental treatments “plus the fact, I don’t want to die. I want to stay alive with quality as long as I can”.