Actor James Van Der Beek is opening up about his journey after telling the world he was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer at the age of 46.
“I’ve been dealing with this secretly for some time, and in the past, I’ve found sharing things publicly helpful and cathartic,” Van der Beek, 47, tells PEOPLE about her week’s cover story“And I’ve had a lot of support that way. But more than that, I really wanted to raise awareness.”
The “Dawson’s Creek” alum hopes that speaking publicly about his experience will raise awareness of colorectal cancer, a cancer that is becoming more common in adults under the age of 55.
“That’s one of the reasons I want to talk about it That’s why I’m talking so openly about it,” Van der Beek said.
Although he does not provide many details about his current health and recovery stages, Van der Beek says that he feels good about his current condition.
“I am very cautiously optimistic. I am in a place of healing, my energy levels are great. When I’m completely out of the woods for a responsible period of time, I’ll go back and tell you,” he says. “I have a lot to live for.”
according to Recent studies from the American Cancer Society (ACS), Colorectal cancer is “increasingly trending towards more advanced disease and younger individuals,” and diagnoses in people under the age of 55 have doubled from 11–20% from 1995 to 2019.
“We know that rates are increasing among younger people, but it is worrying to see how rapidly the entire patient population is getting younger, despite declining numbers in the overall population,” he said. Rebecca SiegelSenior Scientific Director of Surveillance Research at the American Cancer Society. “The trend toward more advanced disease across all ages is also surprising and should motivate everyone 45 and older to get tested.”
Van der Beek said he did not expect this diagnosis in his life because he had always taken care of his body, and to his knowledge he had no family history of cancer.
“I have always associated cancer with age and an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. But I was in wonderful heart condition. I tried to eat healthy – or as far as I knew at the time,” he said.
Van der Beek noticed a change in his bowel movements in the summer of 2023 and attributed it to his diet.
“I thought maybe I needed to lay off the coffee,” the actor said. “Or maybe don’t put cream in the coffee. But when I cut it off and it didn’t improve, I thought, ‘Okay, I better get it checked out.'”
Van der Beek said she “felt really good coming out of anesthesia” after the colonoscopy, and then went into shock when her gastroenterologist told her she had cancer.
Although he did not reveal it, the actor started treatments like surgery and chemotherapy to fight the disease.
“This has been a crash course in mastery of mind, body and spirit,” he said. “I thought, ‘This will either take me out of the body, or it will teach me how to really be in it.'”
He further says that it is difficult to remain positive in difficult situations.
“The most intriguing thing is that there are so many unknowns about cancer,” he explained. “You think, ‘How do I fix this? Is this healing me? Is this hurting me? Is this working? Is this coming back?’ As someone who likes answers, not knowing is one of the hardest things.
The actor currently lives on a farm in Texas with his Wife, Kimberly, 42, and their six children: Olivia, 14, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 8, Gwen, 6, and Jeremiah, 3.
His wife showed her support after he apologized for keeping his cancer diagnosis a secret from loved ones for so long.
“I apologize to everyone in my life that I had planned to tell myself about. “Nothing has happened on my preferred timeline regarding this process,” Van der Beek wrote on social media. “But we go along with it, taking each surprise as a sign pointing us to a far greater destiny than we would have received without divine intervention.”
Kimberly commented on her husband’s post, writing, “I love you baby ♥️”
Kimberly also shared throwback photo with her husband and wrote, “We were children. Lived so much since then. Grateful for all this,” he had made his public announcement a few days ago.
(TagstoTranslate)Entertainment(T)Celebrities(T)Cancer(T)Dawson’s Creek(T)James Van Der Beek
