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William Shatner (95), the unforgettable actor who played Captain Kirk in the Star Trek universe, and his youngest daughter Melanie Shatner Gretsch (61) were diagnosed with cancer at almost the same time. Father and daughter revealed this in People magazine. Both are now considered cured.
How the battle began
For Melanie, it all started in July 2022. At night, she accidentally felt a small lump under her chest and initially thought it was an insect bite. The next day, she had it examined. The diagnosis was cancer that had already spread to lymph nodes in the chest.
"I was devastated," William Shatner recalls the moment his daughter, who is a mother of two children, told him about the illness. Her prominent father subsequently covered her treatment costs.
Two diagnoses in one family
Melanie's treatment dragged on for over a year and a half. Just as the end was in sight, a lump on her father's cheek became a concern.
In June 2023, the diagnosis was confirmed. The Captain Kirk actor had a malignant melanoma in stage four that had already spread to his lungs and brain. After surgery on his face, a two-year immunotherapy followed. Despite this, her father never stopped working, Melanie reports. She and her husband often brought him dinner and made sure he wasn't alone.
In the middle of chemotherapy, Melanie experienced a low point three years ago. At night, she called her father, distraught and convinced she was dying. Fifteen minutes later, Shatner was standing in her driveway. He gave her a strength-giving, fatherly hug and assured her that it would only be an episode in her life that she would merely remember later.
New awareness of life
At the end of 2024, both received the relieving news. They were declared cancer-free. "It was the third time in my life that I heard him cry," Melanie said about the moment when she told Shatner she was healthy again.
Father and daughter now want to report on their experiences together in a podcast. The weekly show titled No Time but Now will feature health experts and other survivors. "I'm now as healthy as I haven't been in years. The brain is like a muscle. It thrives on activity," William Shatner said about his planned podcast project.
The illness also sharpened his view of the miracle of life. "I think about the miracle of a hummingbird, about how my dog fetches a ball, and about my children," said the Star Trek star. "I'm aware of the magic of all of it."
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