In a post that has since been deleted from Instagram, actor Samuel Johnson encouraged everyone to rethink their approach to cancer and other matters in the world.
“If cancer wore a burqa would we have cured it already?” the post begins.
“We want all the freedoms and we want them all now. We hate and kill other humans, for freedom from each other. For a freedom cancer doesn’t permit.”
Johnson decision to compare cancer to terrorism is a poignant one; he wastes no time in pointing out that cancer is a more real and immediate threat in most Australians’ lives.
“75% of us live in real fear of a homegrown terrorist attack, while cancer will detonate and kill 50,000 of us this year. In our own backyard. Not in some province we can’t pronounce, let alone point to on a map.
“Rather than chanting for death, I choose to fight for life. Ideological rant over.”
It’s unclear why the Instagram post has been removed. Johnson’s so-called ideological rant gained immediate support from followers of the Love Your Sister charity, with many commenters telling their own tales of cancer battles won or lost.
The Gold Logie winner has been a staunch advocate for cancer research for years; his sister, Connie, has been fighting cancer on and off since childhood.
This isn’t the first time Johnson has turned to social media to share his personal thoughts; late last month, he posted a touching open letter to his sister about the future.
Earlier this year, Connie received news that her body was no longer responding to treatment for her terminal breast cancer.
The news has only encouraged Johnson to campaign more fiercely. As Connie’s final fundraising act before retirement, the siblings raised $2.2 million in five-cent coins back in May to form an enormous love heart in Canberra.