Soap star Finnian Garbutt has revealed how he is now in a hospice just weeks after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.
The 28-year-old actor, who has played fan-favourite police constable Ryan Power in the BBC drama Hope Street since 2023, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 25 after finding a lump behind his ear.
The actor made the discovery in 2020 before his barber noticed that the lump had grown significantly after the Covid-19 lockdown. He was subsequently diagnosed with Stage 3 skin cancer.
After undergoing a 12 hour surgery in February 2022, where he had 75 lymph nodes removed from his neck and his face, Finnian was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma in August 2024, just two weeks before the arrival of his daughter.
This came before he shared the news that the cancer had ‘progressed rapidly’ earlier this month.
Now, however, Finnian has provided fans with a heartbreaking update after posting a selfie from his hospital bed on Instagram.
Explaining how he is now staying at Northern Ireland Hospice, which provides specialised support for people with terminal illnesses, he wrote: ‘Thank you that have supported me and my family. (sic) I will no longer be sharing my GoFundMe page, but it is still active in bio. Love you all folks.’
Hospice care also focuses on improving a patient’s quality of life and comfort rather than attempting to cure the disease.
In a previous post, Finian shared how he was ‘entering the last stages of life’.
‘Over the last month or so I’ve been having quite a bit of pain in my back and hip,’ he said on Instagram.
‘My cancer team admitted me the other day for observations and to do a few scans.
‘Unfortunately the scans have shown that the cancer has progressed rapidly in my body and I am now entering the last stages of life.’
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Finnian stated that he went public with the news as he found telling people individually ‘really difficult’.
He added: ‘Since being diagnosed four years ago I have achieved so many of my life goals – 30 episodes on a TV show, being the lead in a movie that should be out soon, buying my own house marrying my best friend and becoming a father to the most incredible baby girl who never fails to make me smile”.
‘Thank you to all that have reached out over the years and supported me and my family.’
Set in the fictional Port Devine in Northern Ireland, Finnian wasted little time in cementing his place as a regular cast member from the third series of Hope Street onwards.
The popular series, which follows a police department investigating crimes, featured Finnian at the centre of their storylines across the last two seasons especially.
Having appeared in the latest series – the show’s fifth – Finnian also became one of the longest serving cast members, after a series of cast changes took place between the third series and the fourth.
Alongside Hope Street, he appeared in Casualty in 2020 and stars in the upcoming film Housejackers.
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