Will Reeve, the son of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, has revealed he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of testicular cancer earlier this year.
The 34-year-old Good Morning America presenter noticed a tender lump while showering in April. His wife, Amanda, urged him to have an ultrasound after he initially thought it was nothing serious and would go away.
Doctors found that 95 per cent of the cancer was embryonal carcinoma. Reeve underwent surgery in early May to remove the affected testicle and also banked sperm with Amanda, in case they decide to start a family.
He later had a six-hour operation to remove dozens of lymph nodes from his abdomen. Three of the nodes tested positive for testicular cancer, leading to two rounds of chemotherapy.
Reeve told People that the diagnosis was “stunning” and brought back painful memories of his mother Dana’s battle with lung cancer 20 years earlier.
“The irony is not lost on me that 20 years after my mom died of lung cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering, there I was in the same building getting treated for cancer,” he said.
He added: “I was experiencing life as each of my parents at the same time.”
Reeve said his treatment also made him reflect on his father’s final years, after Christopher Reeve was left paralysed from the neck down when he was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Virginia in May 1995.
Christopher Reeve relied on a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life before dying from heart failure. Dana Reeve died from lung cancer aged 44 in 2006, 17 months after her husband’s death.
“I’ve had a lot happen in my life,” Will said. “But none of it until now had happened to me in a way.”
He described learning about grief after each of his parents died, saying he had to “learn grief all over again at a different level” following his mother’s death.
Reeve is now cancer-free, following a check-up on September 8.
After losing his parents, he was raised by close family friends and neighbours. He now works with his siblings, Matthew and Alexandra, at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which supports research into spinal cord injuries and aims to improve life for people and families affected by paralysis.
Christopher Reeve was best known for playing Superman in four films between 1978 and 1987. He also appeared alongside Jane Seymour in Somewhere In Time.
