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Outpouring of emotion as Samuel Johnson gives up his acting career to focus on cancer fundraising.

 

If you liked Samuel Johnson, 38, as (a very convincing) Molly Meldrum on Channel Seven’s Molly remember it well because it is the last time you’ll see him on-screen “playing pretend” for a long time — possibly forever.

In a lengthy Facebook post on his charity Love Your Sister‘s page, Johnson announced he is retiring from acting after a 25-year career to concentrate on raising the $10 million he promised to donate to cancer research.

It all started with a promise to my crook sister. I unicycled for her. But not for long. As I squiggled my way slowly through this brilliant fucking country of ours, I met many of you in person, in the same boat as me, and soon enough I was riding for all of us, for every family in this country being terrorised by cancer. I cannot play pretend on telly while our families are falling.

He and his sister Connie, who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer at the age of 33, run the charity together.

Johnson’s pledge was met with messages of support and encouragement on Facebook from thousands of Australians whose lives have been devastated by cancer.

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Johnson isn’t paid for his charity work and has admitted that sometimes he struggles to make ends meet. He’s been a familiar face on our screens since he had his first kiss with Sally on Home and Away. Then Australia fell in love with him as Evan in Secret Life of Us. His performance in the hit bio series Molly was the last piece of acting work he did. It wrapped in February 2015.

Watch Samuel Johnson in his final role… Post continues after video.

Video via Yahoo 7

After his sister Connie’s illness, Johnson rode a unicycle (yes, a UNICYCLE) around Australia — 15,955km atop a single-wheeled cycle — and raised $1.5 million for cancer research. The siblings wrote a book together and launched Love Your Sister.

So call me Molly if you like. Call me Research Australia’s Advocate of the Year. Call me that annoying voice over guy. Call me a fundraiser, an advocate, an activist. Call me a brother who tries hard. Just don’t call me an actor. Not until we as a nation are as threatened by cancer as we are by terrorism. Not until the $10M is raised. Until then, I’m all yours, around the clock.

We’ll call him a hero and a very great Australian. And possibly the world’s best brother. Let’s all get behind Johnson — for him, for his sister, for all of those affected by cancer — and so that maybe one day we’ll see his grinning face on TV again.

Go to Love Your Sister to support Johnson’s cause.

Remember this? Best show ever. 

Video via Channel 10
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