Actor Loses Half a Lung After Mistaking Rare Cancer for the Flu, Returns to Stage Months Later: ‘It Was Hell’

Jarryd Nurden made his triumphant return to the stage after losing half of his lung due to a rare form of cancer. 

The 34-year-old actor, originally from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, moved to London in October 2021 to pursue his dreams of performing on the West End — until he suddenly came down with what he initially thought was “a very bad flu.” 

As he recently told The Independent, Nurden later found out that he was feeling the symptoms of a rare form of lung cancer called primary malignant neuroendocrine neoplasm of the lung (atypical carcinoid).

“When I had that phone call, that’s when my world crashed,” he told the outlet. “Up until that point, I had made plans on how to survive, but because this was now taking me out of the picture for God knows how long, I was like, ‘I’m properly screwed.’ ”

At first, Nurden — who noted he had some scarring on his lung from a drowning accident he had as a child — believed that he was fighting a passing illness and continued performing in a Christmas pantomime while doctors looked into his symptoms. 

By the time January 2023 rolled around, he found out he had landed his first major role on the West End in the Queen-inspired jukebox musical, We Will Rock You. Later that same day, however, doctors discovered a tumor that had doubled in size since it was last examined. 

“Obviously, being a performer, our bodies are everything,” Nurden explained, adding that he begged the doctor to let him accept the role anyway. “Time is money. We know how hard it is to stay at a level of excellence as a sportsman, dancer, performer — it just requires a lot.”

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Seven months later, the actor underwent a laparoscopic surgery, after which doctors confirmed that the tumor was cancerous. “That phone call I’ve always described as being underwater,” he said. “Everything just slows down, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I have cancer.’ I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I work really hard. How’s this happening?”

Given the choice of undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy or a lobectomy to rid his body of remaining cancerous cells, Nurden opted for the surgery and had the entire lower lobe of his lung removed in October 2023. 

“Recovery was really hard, because the first open surgery, the major one, went really wrong, with lots of complications,” Nurden told The Independent. “I think it was touch and go at one point. And then I just wasn’t getting better. It was going on for four months in the hospital. I had to have a second open surgery to clear infections. It was hell.”

“No words will be able to describe all the low emotions I felt in those four months,” he added. “Immense fear that I was never going to dance again or sing again. Lots of negatives, lots of pain. I’ve never experienced so much pain in all my life.”

After being forced to turn down a role in the international tour of Chicago amid his recovery from additional procedures, including one to put stents into the fistula in his chest, Nurden later had the opportunity to make his return to the stage playing Mary Sunshine in the September run of the musical in China. 

“I was really proud of myself for having so much courage, but there was no choice as well,” he emphasized. “I mean, the challenge was intense. It was a one-day rehearsal in London. It was flying to the other side of the world, landing, two-hour rehearsal, back onstage. In the tightest clothing as well!”

After finishing his first show three months after his final surgery, Nurden recalled having a feeling of “immense gratitude.”

“It was just so much gratitude for being back onstage, being in a show that I love so much, being with such a supportive company,” he said. “I think when you go through something very life-changing, you stop sweating the small stuff. You often hear people talk about how their lives have changed when they’ve had major traumas happen to them, and you don’t often relate, but I can very much relate now.”