‘Game Of Thrones’ Ilyn Payne Actor Wilko Johnson, Cancer Free - Expected To Die, Terminal Diagnosis Thrown Out After Radical Surgery

In early 2013, Game of Thrones actor and Dr. Feelgood musician Wilko Johnson was given 10 months to live after refusing chemotherapy treatment for this pancreatic cancer diagnosis. While he was ready to pass away without the pain of chemotherapy, a radical surgery performed on the Ilyn Payne actor resulted in a cancer free diagnosis!

Johnson was officially diagnoses with terminal cancer in 2013, but has since prevailed in not succumbing to the illness, thanks mostly to a "radical surgery" to remove his tumor.

"It was an 11-hour operation," the guitarist-turned-actor said at the Q Awards in London, according to BBC.com. "This tumor weighed 3kg - that's the size of a baby. Anyway, they got it all. They cured me."

Faced with his diagnosis, Johnson left the HBO series to get back to playing music. He set up and played a farewell tour, then recorded an album with The Who's Roger Daltrey. 

"I thought that was going to be the last thing I ever did," he told BBC News this week.

While some HBO viewers know the actor as the tongueless executioner of Ned Stark, Johnson is actually a very chipper person that took his initial diagnosis as practically as he could.

"I decided that was the way to deal with it - not to curse it or fight it or anything like that. Just try and enjoy the time left, which I'd done," he said, then talking about being offered the operation that eventually saved his life. "It's so weird and so strange that it's kind of hard to come to terms with it in my mind. Now, I'm spending my time gradually coming to terms with the idea that my death is not imminent, that I am going to live on."

You can check out our original coverage of Johnson's diagnosis HERE!

Read more from the cancer survivor HERE!

(via Warming Glow)