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‘I’ve been down’: Johnny Ruffo reveals how he survived his cancer battle

Oct 07, 2018

Johnny Ruffo reveals how he survived some of the lowest points during his battle with the disease.

The former X Factor Australia contestant’s life was turned upside down in August of last year when what he believed to be a migraine turned out to be a very serious brain tumour.

Now, speaking candidly to The Daily Telegraph, Johnny Ruffo reveals how he survived some of the lowest points during his battle with the disease.

“There have been many times I’ve been down,” the 30-year-old said. “I had thoughts ‘what if I wasn’t here anymore’ and ‘what’s the point of being here’, things like that.”

The Aussie star said that he worked his way through those challenging months by reaching out to others, adding: “I don’t think I’d ever act upon those thoughts but this is not just about me, there are people out there who would potentially act upon them, so the message from me is it’s OK to talk to people and to open up and seek help.”

Ruffo said he was hopeful his brain surgery, radiotherapy and year of chemotherapy treatment had beaten back the cancer. “I’m hoping my next results and the future are good.”

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Speaking with Who magazine’s podcast earlier this year, the actor recalled the terrifying night on August 6, 2017, that his loving girlfriend Tahnee Sims saved his life by rushing him to hospital after he complained of a painful migraine.

While doctors initially told Tahnee to go home, believing Johnny simply had a bad migraine, she woke the next morning to devastating news as they revealed he had slipped into a coma due to a fist-sized tumour in his brain that may have been growing for up to 10 years.

“The doctor said ‘If you didn’t come in (to the hospital), you would have gone to sleep and you would have been dead’,” he told the podcast.

Explaining what he was told at the time, he added: “Basically [the tumour was] the size of my first in my frontal lobe, so all that pressure was being put on my brain which explains the sever headaches and blackouts.”