Actor Jarryd Nurden Reveals Nightmare Health Battle That Cost Him A Lung

West End actor Jarryd Nurden is opening up about the terrifying and life-altering health crisis that nearly ended his career and cost him half of his lung. The KwaZulu-Natal-born performer, who has chased his dream of performing on London’s most iconic stages since childhood, endured months of hospitalizations, multiple invasive surgeries, and a devastating cancer diagnosis before fighting his way back to the spotlight. Just six months after undergoing a major lung operation, Jarryd Nurden has returned to the West End stage, a comeback that once felt impossible.

Nurden moved to London after selling his possessions to secure a visa, determined to make a name for himself in the West End. But his life changed dramatically when he was diagnosed with primary malignant neuroendocrine neoplasm of the lung (atypical carcinoid), a rare cancer that left him hospitalized for months.

“When I had that phone call, that’s when my world crashed,” the 34-year-old recalled, per The Independent. “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’.”

Nurden had previously brushed off lung scarring discovered years earlier, believing it was leftover damage from a childhood drowning accident. But in January 2023, the same day he learned he’d booked his first significant West End role in We Will Rock You, doctors informed him they had discovered a tumor, one that had doubled in size since its last scan.

He begged doctors to delay surgery long enough for him to perform. “Please, can I do this show? I’ve literally just signed the contract this morning,” he remembered saying. “I’ve worked my whole life towards this moment… and I just can’t get it to be cancelled again.”

After months of testing and keyhole surgery in August 2023, doctors confirmed the tumor was cancerous. “That phone call I’ve always described as being underwater,” Nurden 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?”

Even after surgeons removed the tumor, cancerous cells remained. The choice was brutal: chemotherapy and radiotherapy, or a complete lobectomy, the removal of the entire lower lobe of his left lung. Nurden chose the surgery.

In October 2023, Nurden underwent a lobectomy. But what should have been a life-saving procedure became a nightmare. “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.”

He required a second open surgery to clear infections. “It was hell,” he said. “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.”

With financial help from the Actors’ Trust, Jarryd Nurden stayed afloat while adjusting to life with half a lung, a chest drain, and months of forced rest.

In early 2024, Jarryd Nurden had to decline an offer to join the international tour of "Chicago." He was recovering from surgeries, infections, and ongoing issues with a chest fistula. A July 2024 operation inserted stents, another painful step toward recovery.

Two months later, Chicago reached out again for their September run in China. “I’m going to just try my best. That’s all I can do,” he told producers, not knowing if he’d even be physically capable.

Just three months after his last surgery, he was back onstage, covering the role of Mary Sunshine. “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.”

He flew to China, did a one-day rehearsal in London, landed abroad, rehearsed for two hours, and then performed in what he described as “the tightest clothing as well!”

The moment Jarryd Nurden stepped back in front of an audience was one he will never forget. “That bow I took, it was an immense gratitude,” he said. “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.”