Home and Away's Johnny Ruffo shares update on cancer battle: 'It's hard'

Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo reveals he is 'battling along' and praises girlfriend Tahnee Sims for being his rock.

Video transcript

JOHNNY RUFFO: I'm still doing chemotherapy and still battling along just one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. But it is a challenge. It's-- I'm still going forward with all the-- I still got cancer, so there's that. But staying positive and just staying strong and lucky. I'm so lucky. I've got Tahnee behind me every step of the way. She's the one that's keeping me strong I think. She's-- I feel like she's battling as much as I am. She also has to put up with me, so she's got that layer of things. So yeah, without her I'd definitely be-- it'd be a lot harder. She's definitely given me the hint about you know, getting engaged. Well, I like this ring. How is this ring? And I'm like, that one. So I think that might be on the cards, maybe. I'm definitely getting there, nudge, nudge. So there's that also. And we've been together for quite some time now, so.

I've kind of come to terms with you just don't know, right? For anyone for that matter, like whether you've got an illness or not, you just don't know. Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow. So you have to live in the now, and you have to enjoy every day as it comes. So that's where I'm at the moment. Like, I enjoy every day with Tahnee. And I'll call my brother as often as I can.

I mean, I just finished writing a book and part of the reason I wanted to do that was not just to tell my story, but to also help other people be able to understand, maybe not understand, but just to be able to reflect on themselves and be OK, just OK with what's going on in their life. And to also realize that there's always someone out there that has it worse off, you know. So just try and be OK with what's going on. I know it's hard. Like, physically it's taxing. Mentally, it's taxing. Try not to let that take over your world and your life. And just try and enjoy the time you have with the ones you love and create great memories, you know. So when they do think about you it's just they think of the good things and they smile.