Fair City actor Tommy O’Neill says it’s a “miracle” he’s still alive after being diagnosed with stage four cancer and given just months to live.
The soap star - who plays Detective John Deegan - was told he had prostate cancer in 2020 and told he would be lucky to survive another 18 months.
But now he’s back in work on the Carrigstown set and feeling good, telling the Irish Mirror: “I’m a miracle. I shouldn’t be here.”
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Dubliner Tommy, 69, was out of the show for the past two years while getting chemotherapy cancer treatment.
He has finished the treatment now but is still taking cancer medication.
Now he’s returned for a stint on the soap, saying: “Everyday I’m getting stronger, and I’m coming back.
“Especially in the past two months. The doctors can’t understand it, they find it hard to believe.”
He explained: “I was very sick. I was actually dying. I was stage four. Doctors said I had maybe 18 months.
“It was prostate cancer that spread to the liver and lymph nodes.”
He says the illness was punishing.
“The last time I was in Fair City, it was only for a day, but I remember sitting down in my dressing room, and even struggling trying to put my boots on. I’ll never forget that day.
“I did the scene and then I had to say: ‘I don’t think I’m going to make next week’.”
When the doctors gave him the bad news, he accepted it.
The former alcoholic and heroin addict says his past troubles mean he does not fear death.
He said: “I was so sick, I just thought: ‘Okay, f*ck it.’
“I nearly died three times before anyway. I nearly OD’d twice, but I’m still here. So I feel I am blessed.”
“I’m an alcoholic and a drug addict. I’ve been in recovery for 40 years. We have a programme - and so I live my life one day at a time.
“I think: Well. I’m not going to die today, so I’ll worry about it later.
“I’ve never been afraid of death, because I don’t see why. I’ve had an amazing life.
“We are all dying, which is sad, but it’s the way it is.”
“We are all going to die. We walk hand in hand with it everyday, so we are better off making friends with death. Because if you are afraid of death, you are afraid of life.”
Feeling fitter and healthier everyday, Tommy credits his lifelong healthy habits for helping him beat the odds and come out the other side of it.
The star, who is based in Gorey, Co Wexford, said: “I think it is lifestyle. I was as surprised as anyone.
“I am nearly 70 now but I was a daily runner into my late 50s.”
And as his health is coming back, so is work and his usual routines.
He is back on the hit Dublin soap for a big event in his long running character’s life - his retirement from the force.
Tommy, who also recently starred alongside Christopher Walken and Jamie Dornan in Wild Mountain Thyme, said: “I love being back, you are doing the show a long time and it is a big part of my life.
“It was lovely to be back and see all my friends and be doing something.”
The actor credited his employers for their support throughout his illness.
He continued: “Brigie [De Courcy], our producer, was really good to me, and gave me the time I needed off.”
- Fair City airs Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm on RTÉ One.
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