A Home Alone star who played Santa in the 1990 Christmas classic featuring Macaulay Culkin has been diagnosed with cancer.
Ken Hudson Campbell, 61, is an American actor who added 60 acting credits to his name and went on to appear in the likes of Armageddon and Groundhog Day after kicking off his career by playing the witty Santa in the Christmas classic Home Alone.
His family now revealed that Ken will undergo an important ten-hour surgery after doctors discovered a “tumor had elusively grown on the bottom of his mouth and it began encroaching on his teeth.”
In a GoFundMe fundraiser, the family explained: “On December 7th, he is scheduled for a 10-hour surgery, during which a large part of his jawbone will be removed, along with his lymph nodes, and part of his leg bone.
“Surgeons plan to reconstruct a new jaw for Ken from this leg bone, install it, and treat him with radiation. He will have a 6-month recovery period & Chemo may be needed afterwards as well.”
The fundraiser, which has so far already raked in over $65,000, continues: “In January of 2022, following the COVID-19 pandemic, Ken lost the SAG-AFTRA health insurance that he had used for his whole career. Since then he has switched to Kaiser & has great faith in his new team. Regardless, he’s looking at a week in the hospital, dealing with a feeding tube, skin grafts, and a Tracheotomy, and we are looking at further recovery possibilities like nursing homes.
“Even though physical therapy and speech therapy are covered, we are anticipating huge out-of-pocket costs for caregivers/skilled nursing, insurance premiums, medical equipment, transportation, dental implants, dentures and who knows what else.
Our entire immediate family, Kathleen, Richard, and Michaela, are planning on taking care of him as much as we can during this long journey.”
Appealing to the public for financial assistance during this challenging time, the family went on to pay a tribute to the small-roles actor saying he is a family man and a loving father of two with an “admirable lust for life.”
They also explained that regardless of his passion for acting the surgery and the diagnosis might affect his ability to work as an actor in the future.
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