Ken Hudson Campbell, known for his role as Santa Claus in the 1990 holiday classic Home alonehe is recovering after his cancer was successfully removed during surgery.
The 61-year-old actor’s daughter Michael spoke with PEOPLE about the type of cancer her father is battling and shared an update on his health after he was diagnosed on Oct. 27.
“It’s called squamous cell carcinoma,” she tells PEOPLE. “It was a big tumor in his mouth. He’s had a lot of biopsies in the last two years and they’ve tried to get it under control. And only this year it became very, very aggressive. So when he got the biopsy in October, that’s when we got the diagnosis.”
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common oral cancer and affects approximately 35,000 people in the United States each year. It often appears as scaly red patches or raised growths. SCC is usually not life-threatening, but if left untreated, it can grow or spread to other parts of the body.
Michaela says her father’s diagnosis came as a shock because she believed he was at the peak of his health. However, she learned that her father had stopped going to checkups for the tumor after he lost his SAG-AFTRA health insurance in 2022.
“He lost his health insurance with SAG and had to stop seeing the same doctors he had been seeing for a while for his mouth,” she explains. “And that put him off a little bit and he just didn’t check it out.”
“I think it was really shocking for us because we thought he was taking care of it, at least I was. It was very hard for me to hear and it was hard for me emotionally,” continues Michaela. “My dad was in shock about everything.”
Ken Hudson Campbell with his son Richard and daughter Michaela before cancer surgery.
Michaela Campbell
Home alone Actor Ken Hudson Campbell is starting a GoFundMe to pay for cancer surgery
Last week, Campbell went into surgery to remove her tumor. During the 10-hour procedure, his lymph nodes and a large part of his jawbone were removed, says Michaela. Surgeons also removed part of his leg bone in order to reconstruct a new jaw.
Michaela says her dad is “doing well” after the successful surgery and will remain in intensive care for a few days. “He’s conscious and they took him off the ventilator, so he’s breathing on his own,” she says. “They said they were able to remove the entire cancer as well so he won’t need chemotherapy.”
In a month, Campbell will begin radiation therapy five days a week, and the actor will have a six-month recovery period. Michaela says she, her mother Kathleen and brother Richard will look after him unless more help is needed.
“I think the hardest part of this for him is going to be losing his speech and the ability to speak. So speech therapy will play a big role in that,” says Michaela.
“We kind of play step by step, depending on how weakened he is,” she adds. “If he needs extra help, we might put him in a nursing home for a while, but if not, we’ll bring him home and we’ll still hire help for post-surgery care.”
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Ken Hudson Campbell.
GoFundMe
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Days before Campbell’s surgery, Michaela created a GoFundMe page in her father’s name to help raise money for physical and speech therapy, medical equipment, dental implants, caregivers and more.
The fundraiser has since surpassed its $100,000 goal, with donations from several stars, including Steve Carell, Jeff Garlin, Tim Meadows, Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady, and more.
Michaela says Campbell has been “overwhelmed” by the support and kind messages on GoFundMe.
“The first day we published it, every time he read something, he would just burst into tears,” she says of her dad. “It was the first time he really got emotional about the whole situation. It was a shock for him to feel so loved.”
“It really means the world,” Michaela tells PEOPLE. “My family has been struggling with financial difficulties for a long time. So having my dad’s friends come together, this is just overwhelming and it really takes a lot of stress off my family’s shoulders.”
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Source: HIS Education