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James Van Der Beek has opened up about what he’s doing to pay for his cancer treatment.
The Dawson’s Creek alum recently turned to his Instagram Story to encourage his followers to buy a football jersey from his 1999 movie Varsity Blues that he would autograph himself. He promised that the jersey would arrive in time for Christmas.
The jersey itself is blue and white with his character’s name, Jonathan “Mox” Moxon, written on it. Underneath the image of him wearing the jersey was “#cancerisexpensive” alongside a red heart emoji, indicating that part of the funds would go to his cancer treatment.
Van Der Beek previously announced he would be selling the jerseys in an Instagram post where he announced how expensive cancer treatment can be. “Merch drop! Excited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of #VarsityBlues with a limited edition #4 Moxon jersey — each one personally autographed by me. Grab yours now at the link in my bio or head over to JVDB.Shop,” his caption began.
“100 percent of my net proceeds will go to families recovering from the financial burden of cancer (including my own).”
The actor first announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer in a statement to People in November. “I have colorectal cancer. I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my incredible family,” he told the outlet.
He added: “There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good.”
Colorectal cancer is a type of cancer that starts in either the colon or the rectum, which are both part of the large intestine in the body’s digestive system.
He also addressed his health news in an Instagram post where he apologized to his loved ones for hearing the news about his cancer from the media instead of in person.
“There’s no playbook for how announce these things, but I’d planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon… to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms. But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news,” his caption read.
“Apologies to all the people in my life who I’d planned on telling myself. Nothing about this process has occurred on my preferred timeline,” he added.
Van Der Beek later revealed how he felt following his diagnosis. “I’d always associated cancer with age and with unhealthy, sedentary lifestyles,” he told People. “But I was in amazing cardiovascular shape. I tried to eat healthy — or as far as I knew it at the time.”
The actor admitted that he was having irregular bowel movements before receiving his diagnosis. He attempted to cut coffee out of his diet to fix the problem, but when it didn’t work he went to the hospital.
“Then the gastroenterologist said — in his most pleasant bedside manner — that it was cancer,” Van Der Beek said.
“I think I went into shock…. The trickiest thing is there are so many unknowns with cancer. You think, ‘How do I fix this? Is this healing me? Is this hurting me? Is this working? Is it coming back?’ As someone who likes answers, not knowing is one of the hardest things.”
