Samuel Johnson: 'I fell in love and married the cancer problem'

After quitting acting three years to focus on raising money for cancer research, Gold Logie winner Samuel Johnson recently returned to TV screens on Dancing With The Stars.

The 41-year-old took out the winning title during last night’s nail-biting grand finale, meaning he’s raised $50,000 for the charity Love Your Sister, co-founded by him and late sibling Connie Johnson, who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2017.

While Samuel’s put his own acting career on hold, he’s also pushed aside personal pursuits such as romance and fatherhood. He says he’s still not in any hurry to prioritise these, in fact he’s content with the way his life’s panning out.

“I don’t know, I fell in love with the cancer problem and that’s what I’m married to,” he tells Yahoo Lifestyle Australia.

“It’s become my sole focus and I do it for me as well as others, it’s a two-way street.”

In 2016 the TV star announced he was quitting acting to dedicate his energy towards raising $10 million for cancer research.

The following year his sister Connie died following a long and hard battle with cancer.

Throughout her three-decade long fight with the disease, Connie was always smiling and her positive attitude towards life led to her being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia the day before she died in September 2017.

At the time Samuel said he’d take a break to grieve privately, but would then return to continuing his sister’s legacy as soon as he was up to it.

This year he made a return to TV screens as a celebrity contestant on Dancing With The Stars.

Participating to raise money for Love Your Sister, there were times when the actor broke down during rehearsals as he paid tribute to his late sister through dance.

“It’s been an emotional time,” Samuel now says looking back at the DWTS experience. “Dance unlocks the heart so I feel better having cried and moved a bit.”

After beating Courtney Act in the grand finale last night, his attention turns to raising further funds.

“I’m aiming to hit the $10 million before Christmas. I’ve got to see this f****r through,” he explains.”I need to be there for that and I don’t care where it lands, I’ll be there.”

So will he ever return to acting? It seems that door could still be open.

“Once I hit the magical $10 million dollar mark, anything goes,” says Sam.

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