'General Hospital's John J. York Shares Optimistic Health Update Amid Cancer Battle
John J. York is facing an uphill battle with his recent cancer diagnoses, but he's already approaching the climb with a positive attitude.
The General Hospital actor, 64, who recently announced a hiatus from the soap he's starred in for over two decades in order to treat the two blood and bone marrow disorders, opened up in a new interview with People about keeping his head up and turning the unfortunate news into something good.
After seven consecutive months of chemo infusions, York's priority status on the bone marrow donor registry has been moved up, putting him one step closer to receiving a transplant that may just save his life. "I'm excited about that,” he said, sharing that a number of his family members had signed up to the registry—which matches potential living donors with those in need of several different types of organ transplants—on his behalf.
If even one life is saved from his request for folks to add themselves to the registry, he said, "...that's huge,”
York is currently fighting myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS, and multiple smoldering myeloma. According to the National Cancer Institute, MDS is a group of cancers in which immature blood cells do not ever mature to become healthy blood cells. Meanwhile, smoldering myeloma is an asymptomatic, pre-cancerous condition that can lead to multiple myeloma, where abnormal white blood cells build up in the bone marrow and cause tumor growth in bones.
Despite the harrowing diagnoses, York said, “I feel great.” He's walking several miles a day and has a healthy appetite and diet. That's because they caught it early, according to his doctor.
Thanks to a myriad of pre-existing conditions, like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, York had regular checkups that ultimately led to the discovery. And because he's still feeling good, he said he's not particularly scared.
"Personally, I feel like it's in God's hands," he added. "God's will be done. It's gonna work out okay, one way or another. I'm either gonna survive or I'm not. And life goes on and things are gonna be okay for everybody... Let's just go one day at a time.”
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