London-born writer whose book Awakenings inspired the Oscar-nominated film vows to live ‘in the richest, deepest, most productive’ way he can after learning of multiple metastases in the liver
The scientist and writer Oliver Sacks has said his “luck has run out” after revealing that he has terminal cancer.
Sacks, whose book Awakenings inspired many, said: “A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out – a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.”
He said it came after a previous diagnosis nine years ago and he is now “face to face with dying”.
He wrote: “It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.”
Sacks said he would no longer watch the evening news, or pay attention to arguments over politics or climate change.
“I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future,” he wrote.
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