Actor Sam Neill, best known for his roles in the “Jurassic Park” movie franchise, revealed this week that he has been receiving treatment after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer.

The 75-year-old told the BBC that he was diagnosed 12 months ago with “a ferocious type of aggressive” stage three non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Neill said that he decided to write a book to distract him from the diagnosis.

“I didn’t think I had a book in me, I just thought I’d write some stories. And I found it increasingly engrossing,” he said. “A year later, not only have I written the book — I didn’t have a ghost writer — but it’s come out in record time.”

He said that the toughest part of undergoing chemotherapy was losing his hair. “More than anything I want my beard back,” he said. “I don’t like the look of my face one bit.”

“I’m not afraid of dying,” he said. “What I don’t want to do is to stop living, because I really enjoy living. I’ve regarded it as an adventure, quite a dark adventure, but an adventure nevertheless. And the good days are just fantastic and when you get some good news it’s absolutely exhilarating.”

“The last thing I want is for people to obsess about the cancer thing,” he later added, “because I’m not really interested in cancer. I’m not really interested in anything other than living.”

Neill gave an update about his condition on Saturday morning in a post on Instagram, saying that he’s been “in remission for eight months.”

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“My news seems to be all over the news at the moment, and it’s sort of ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!’ which is slightly tiresome because as you see, I am alive and well and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good,” he said. “And I’m alive and kicking and I’m going to work. I’m very happy to be going back to work. We start filming in seven days’ time. I’m doing a thing called ‘Apples Never Fall’ with Annette Bening, and a really wonderful cast.”

“So here I am, and I just wish the headline wasn’t ‘that thing’ so much, because the main thing is that I have written this book, it’s called, ‘Did I Ever Tell You This?’” he said. “And it does mention cancer because that’s the sort of context in which I wrote it. But I didn’t really mean to write a book, I needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment, and I am used to going to work and I suddenly couldn’t go to work. So that’s why I wrote the book, and I have to say there’s been great response to it. People seem to love it, which is great.”

He later stressed that people should “not worry too much” about the cancer news “because I’m fine. Okay!”

A new bill in California, SB 345, seeks to protect doctors who provide abortion medication by mail to women in states where the medication, or the procedure itself, is banned. It would also permit the distribution of controversial transgender medication, such as puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, in states where local laws would prohibit it.

The new bill would allow people who are patients of a doctor in California to obtain abortion medication or trans medication, even if the state they are in prohibits it. Notably, the bill protects medical providers in California from punishment, but not the out-of-state patients or California doctors who leave the state to provide the care in person.

“California health care practitioners will be able to provide essential reproductive and gender-affirming care that is legal in California, regardless of their patient’s geographic location, knowing that California is doing everything it can to protect them against the draconian laws of other states,” boasted Democratic State Sen. Nancy Skinner, author of SB 345.

Skinner says SB 345 would permit doctors to “prescribe and dispense medications for abortion and contraception that are safe to patients regardless of where the patient is located,” “provide gender-affirming care and deliver that care regardless of where the patient is located,” and “bring suit in California against anyone who interferes with the health care provider’s right to provide care that is legal in California.”

Politicians in the blue state, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, have promoted California as an abortion destination since recent legal pro-life wins, which have coincided with a pandemic-charged population loss in the Golden State. Moreover, Newsom, in September, signed a bill making California a so-called sanctuary state for child gender surgery.

Critics say the law infringes on states’ rights.

“The arrogance of such a proposal is astounding,” said Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center, according to Fox News. “It flaunts the traditional relationship between states and would upend our federal system altogether.”

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Abortion is banned in most cases in some 13 states, and numerous other states have requirements relating to how abortion medication mifepristone is dispensed. The Biden administration first allowed mifepristone to be sent by mail and stopped enforcing a rule requiring women to get the drug in person at a clinic or hospital during COVID. The removal of the in-person requirement was made permanent in January, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would allow pharmacies to become “certified” so they can dispense the abortion medication to people who have a prescription. Mifepristone is widely used in the U.S. making up more than half of all abortions, an estimated 54%.

Numerous states, including Tennessee and Mississippi, have outlawed controversial transgender medication and surgeries on minors.

Related: Newsom Signs Bill Making California Sanctuary For Child Gender Surgery