“General Hospital” star John York returns to set after cancer battle: 'I feel like I had just a little break'
York, who has been on the soap since 1991, took a hiatus for treatment for two blood and bone marrow disorders.
Mac Scorpio is back!
This week General Hospital fans will see John York, who's been with the daytime soap since 1991, return to the series. York joined Good Morning America on Monday to discuss his return after taking a hiatus to undergo treatment for myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS, and multiple smoldering myeloma — two blood and bone marrow disorders.
The cast and crew greeted York with "Mac Is Back" T-shirts, and York has felt nothing but love from his colleagues. "Everybody has been very welcoming, very supportive," he told GMA. "And here I go already [chokes up], ’cause I can't tell you how nice it's been, the support that I've gotten."
York was first diagnosed in late 2022, but he didn't publicly announce the diagnosis until September of last year, at which point he was preparing to take a break to recover from chemotherapy and a blood stem cell transplant.
"I just want to say thanks for all the support over the years," York said in his social media announcement. "This isn't goodbye, this is just 'so long.' I'll have to take a break [from General Hospital] for at least three, maybe four months, but I'll be back."
Bobby Bank/Getty
John York in 2023When York was first diagnosed, his doctors informed him that he would live approximately three to five years if he took no steps toward treatment. At first, he balanced his treatment plan with his work on General Hospital.
"[I'd do] seven days of chemo in Tennessee, and then I was available to work for two, three weeks in California," he told GMA. "My philosophy was always one day at time, let's just get through today."
York also explained that his formal announcement of his diagnosis motivated many to join the Be the Match registry to help those in need of marrow and stem cell transplants find a donor. The actor was lucky to find an exact match for his blood stem cell transplant.
"It's just a bag of blood and fluid, and they put it in my body," he explained. "Forty minutes later, and now I'm this person and my cells are now fighting each other and battling each other and getting to know each other. And here we are, back to work."
Related: Rena Sofer is checking back into General Hospital after leaving 26 years ago
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Despite his break from General Hospital, York said that he doesn't feel like he's been away too long. "I just felt so attached that I didn't feel like I missed anything," he concluded. "I feel like I just had a little break, a little vacation I guess, and had to go through something and now we're here on kind of the other side of it."
His first episode back will air on ABC on Wednesday.
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