By
LLS Staffer
Andy Whitfield had everything to live for. A rising star, he was playing a leading role in the hit television series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” and building a healthy resume of both TV and film credits. He was raising two young children with the love of his life, his wife Vashti.
In March 2010, he received the worst kind of news: he had non-Hodgkin lymphoma. However, given his age and fitness, they had every expectation that he would recover. He began chemotherapy immediately and was declared cancer free in six weeks. Unfortunately, the disease returned only a few months later.
Whitfield was forced to abandon his television role, and a year later, he died at the age of 39.
Early on in his journey, Whitfield and his wife made the decision to allow Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lilibet Foster to document his experience of healing. They were confident he would prevail in his fight and hoped that sharing his story would inspire others who have challenges and dreams.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society collaborated on the eventual release of the documentary, “Be Here Now (The Andy Whitfield Story),” to spread awareness about the urgent need to find cures and ensure access to treatments for blood cancer patients.
The film is now playing in limited release with LLS chapters hosting a number of public screenings as a way to raise funds and generate awareness for the LLS mission. LLS hopes that Whitfield’s story will also serve as a public testament as to why we support research.
Thanks to research, survival rates for patients with many blood cancers have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled since the early 1960s. However, despite these advances, about one third of patients with a blood cancer (such as Whitfield) still do not survive, which is why funding is needed to bring better therapies to patients faster.
To learn more about the film, find a screening or host a showing, visit www.beherenowfilm.com
Read the LLS news release. Donate to LLS.
