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American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and director Erik Jensen of The Walking Dead fame was recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, as revealed by a GoFundMe post by his family last week. The post began as follows:
“After miraculously surviving a brain aneurysm just a year and a half ago, our beloved Erik Jensen was just diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer.”
The GoFundMe post for Jensen further mentioned him as one of the “most hardworking, loving, truthful, and devoted people" and explained how they need to raise $300,000 to keep up with his medical expenses. It added that the family’s income has declined drastically over the last few months due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, with them now risking the loss of their health insurance.
The 53-year-old Erik Jensen is married to Jessica Blank and is a father to their only daughter, Sadie, according to the information in the GoFundMe post.
Everything you need to know about Erik Jensen’s family
According to Opoyi, Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank tied the knot in 2001, and the couple has a 13-year-old daughter named Sadie. Just like her husband, Jessica Blank is also part of the film, TV, and theater industries and works as an actress, writer, and director.
In fact, the duo has collaborated professionally in writing scripts for plays including The Exonerated, Aftermath, and How to Be a Rock Critic, among others. She has also acted in many regional and off-Broadway plays.
Jessica Blank co-adapted, co-directed, and produced the 2018 film Almost Home, starring Erik Jensen. She also starred in notable TV shows such as CSI: Miami, The Mentalist, and Law & Order, among others.
The Connecticut native is also a motivational speaker on social change and a consultant screenwriter. She also coached professional screenwriting at the Juilliard School and has penned novels including Karma for Beginners and Legacy.
Looking at Erik Jensen’s health condition
According to the GoFundMe post started by Erik Jensen’s family, the actor has stage 4 colorectal cancer, which has already “metastasized to his liver.” He is also undergoing chemotherapy.
“His doctors think they have a shot at shrinking the tumors enough to do two very major surgeries and get them all out…He can make it through this. But Erik and his family are in for the fight of their lives, and they need your support,” the post continued.
The GoFundMe post, which has the goal of raising $300,000, has raised $117,590 at the time of writing. In fact, a few of Jensen’s co-stars, including Scott M. Gimple and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, shared the GoFundMe link on their social media pages, as reported by Page Six.
As for his previous illness, in February 2022, Erik was working on a play at his Brooklyn home when he had a seizure and lost consciousness. Fortunately, the doctors were able to save him from a subarachnoid hemorrhage, commonly called a brain aneurysm, which is fatal in most cases.
In fact, during an interview with Broadway News, The Robot actor later said how he was able to make a full recovery and go back to work only four weeks later and that he survived a “miracle.”
