Neighbours star Ian Smith says he’s ‘glad’ he decided to abandon voluntary assisted dying plan

TV star, who played Ramsay Street stalwart Harold Bishop for 37 years, was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year. Neighbours star Ian Smith has said that he is “glad” that he decided not to go ahead with his initial plans for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). The 86-year-old actor, best known for playing the beloved character Harold Bishop on the Australian soap since 1987, took a step back from the show in December when he announced he had been diagnosed with terminal pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma, a rare and aggressive lung cancer.

He was told by his doctor that he didn’t have long left to live and that he would likely die in March. In a new interview, Smith revealed that he had applied for VAD – which is legal in Australia under particular circumstances for adults with terminal illnesses – but decided against it when the pharmacist phoned him arranging to deliver the drugs to keep at home for the day he decided to die. Voluntary assisted dying is legal in Australia in circumstances where an adult with a terminal illness is experiencing “intolerable suffering” and has the capacity to make the decision themselves.

Smith said he “wholeheartedly” approves of VAD – having watched his parents, birth mother and wife all die of cancer – but he does not agree with the drugs being kept in the home. “I just disagree with it being left in the home. For so many reasons – you could be robbed! It is as good as a loaded gun.”. In December, just after Smith had stepped back from Neighbours and announced his diagnosis to the world, doctors told him the good news that his chemotherapy and immunotherapy were working and his tumours were clearing. His life expectancy was first moved to Christmas 2025 and is now Christmas 2026.

Smith said that if he had taken the drugs for assisted dying, he would have “missed out on that wonderful day in December when I was told of my progress”. “My first thought was: ‘My God, I could have been dead.’ And I would have been, if I’d had the mixture at home.”. While the actor’s cancer is incurable, he said his increased life expectancy has given him a positive outlook. “That’s why I’ve got this solid grin on my face,” he said. “Apart from being 86, I feel good. I’m in no pain. I know how strange that sounds.”.

“I know I have cancer, because doctors keep telling me I have it. I may get very sick again one day. But I have lived the most privileged life.”. He added: “I am in this funny, vacuous place. They can’t say the cancer has gone – in fact, they mustn’t, because it has come back in other people and they have died of it. But honestly, if they told me it had come back now, I would be ready this time.”.

Smith first appeared on Neighbours in 1987 as an old flame of Madge Mitchell (Anne Charleston). His character was only supposed to be in a few episodes but ended up staying until 1991, when Harold was washed out to sea while on holiday. He returned in 1996. During his time on the show, Harold had his house burgled by a gambling-addicted girlfriend, suffered a stroke that completely altered his personality, and tried to strangle the man he blamed for the plane crash that killed his son.