‘After moving across the world for my West End dream, I lost half a lung to cancer – 3 months later I was back on stage’

A 34-year-old theatre actor who gave up everything to move from South Africa to London to pursue his West End dream fought his way back to the stage six months after having half of his lung removed due to cancer.

Jarryd Nurden grew up in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and had always dreamt of performing in London’s West End. Since he was a child, Jarryd had performed in choirs and had a “desire to sing”, but knew that pursuing his dream to become a world-class performer would mean leaving his home country and moving across the world to Theatreland.

However, just two years after he took the plunge and sold everything to secure a visa to live in London, Jarryd was diagnosed with primary malignant neuroendocrine neoplasm of the lung (atypical carcinoid), a rare form of lung cancer that left him in hospital for months, his dream of progressing his career shattering before his eyes.

He needed surgery to remove the entire lower lobe of his left lung to eradicate the cancer, and began a long road to recovery with no idea if he would ever perform on stage again.

“When I had that phone call, that’s when my world crashed,” Jarryd told PA Real Life.

“Up until that point, I had made plans on how to survive, but because this was now taking me out of the picture for God knows how long, I was like: ‘I’m properly screwed’.

“I came to this country with no savings. It’s very much been hand to mouth. I didn’t know what to do.”

Thanks to his sheer determination to recover and fight for his dream, Jarryd was back performing just months after major lung surgery and feels he has been given a “second chance at life”.

Jarryd began his theatre career back in 2013, in a South African production of West Side Story, and he took his career international with a tour of Cats in 2014. He worked hard to progress his career on the international stage, until the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, causing him to lose two jobs due to cancellations.

By February 2021, Jarryd realised it was now or never: he needed to move to London. He began the notoriously difficult process of getting a UK visa, selling everything he owned to afford the visa fees, flights and costs of moving, which he estimates amounted to around £11,000. When he and his sister finally secured their UK visas in August 2021, they were ecstatic: “It felt like we had won an Oscar,” Jarryd said.

By the time he moved to London in October 2021, Jarryd already had two West End auditions waiting for him. Splitting his time between friends’ spare rooms and staying with family in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, until beginning the “hustle” of day jobs to support himself in the capital, Jarryd followed his dream until he finally secured what would have been his first West End role, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella in spring 2022.

However, the West End run of Cinderella closed early, before Jarryd was able to make his Theatreland debut, and it was back to the grind of auditioning until he secured a role in a Christmas 2022 pantomime. That winter, Jarryd came down with a “very bad flu” – which turned out to be a rare form of lung cancer.

“I knew about some small scarring on my lung from a medical I’d done five years prior,” he explained.

“Back then, we just ruled it up to scar tissue from a drowning accident when I was really young.”

Jarryd believed he was fine, and continued performing in the pantomime while doctors insisted on investigating further, battling through his symptoms to put on the show.

In January 2023, he took a phone call from his agent in which he found out he had a role in We Will Rock You – his first major West End role. The same day, he had an appointment at Guy’s Hospital which sent his world crashing down – doctors had discovered a tumour.

Doctors confirmed the mass in his lung was a tumour that had doubled in size from two centimetres to four centimetres since it was last examined. They needed to perform keyhole surgery to remove the tumour and determine whether it was benign or cancerous.

“Obviously, being a performer, our bodies are everything. Time is money. We know how hard it is to stay at a level of excellence as a sportsman, dancer, performer, it just requires a lot,” Jarryd said.

“So I said to (the doctor): ‘Please, can I do this show? I’ve literally just signed the contract this morning. I’ve worked my whole life towards this moment, it got cancelled last year, and I just can’t get it to be cancelled again’.”

After months of investigation, including the keyhole surgery in August 2023, it was confirmed that the tumour was cancerous. Jarryd was diagnosed with primary malignant neuroendocrine neoplasm of the lung (atypical carcinoid).

“That phone call I’ve always described as being underwater,” Jarryd said.

“Everything just slows down, and you’re like: ‘Oh, I have cancer’. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I work really hard. How’s this happening?”

Jarryd was told that some cancerous cells remained, even though the main tumour had been removed, and was offered either chemotherapy and radiotherapy or a major operation – a lobectomy – to remove the lower lobe of his lung.

Jarryd opted for the surgery, and in October 2023 he had a completion lobectomy – the removal of the entire lower lobe of his lung – to get rid of remaining cancer cells.

“Recovery was really hard, because the first open surgery, the major one, went really wrong, with lots of complications,” he said.

“I think it was touch and go at one point. And then I just wasn’t getting better. It was going on for four months in the hospital. I had to have a second open surgery to clear infections. It was hell.

“No words will be able to describe all the low emotions I felt in those four months. Immense fear that I was never going to dance again or sing again. Lots of negatives, lots of pain. I’ve never experienced so much pain in all my life.”

Thanks to the support of Actors’ Trust, Jarryd was able to access financial support to keep afloat while he was out of work which “saved (his) life”. Months of rest followed, with Jarryd still needing a chest drain due to a fistula in his chest, and he was forced to turn down an offer to perform in the international tour of the musical Chicago.

July 2024 brought another operation, this time to put stents into the fistula, and Jarryd was still unable to work. However, when Chicago reached out again to offer him a role in their September international run in China, he assured them he would be ready – despite not having a clue if he would be fit enough to work.

“I’m going to just try my best. That’s all I can do,” he said.

Incredibly, just three months after his last surgery, he made it back on stage, covering the role of Mary Sunshine in the musical.

“I was really proud of myself for having so much courage, but there was no choice as well,” he said.

“It was do or die. These are the cards that you’ve been dealt, and you play them and you’re going to play them to the best of your ability.

“I mean, the challenge was intense. It was a one-day rehearsal in London. It was flying to the other side of the world, landing, two-hour rehearsal, back on stage. In the tightest clothing as well!

“I wasn’t fully feeling like I was sexy, even though it’s the sexiest show on earth.”

Taking a bow after his first performance was incredibly emotional, Jarryd added.

“That bow I took, it was an immense gratitude. It was just so much gratitude for being back on stage, being in a show that I love so much, being with such a supportive company.”

“I was really proud,” he continued.

“I think when you go through something very life-changing, you stop sweating the small stuff. You often hear people talk about how their lives have changed when they’ve had major traumas happen to them, and you don’t often relate, but I can very much relate now.

“I think it’s just that you value life a little bit more than before, and you value your talent a little bit more, you value the fact that you’ve survived something so crazy that you let go a lot more in your performance, or judge yourself a little less…

“You do have that second chance at life, essentially.”