‘General Hospital’s John J. York Brought To Tears As He Reflects On Fighting Cancer And Coming Back To Set On ‘GMA’

John J. York is speaking out about his health and his work on General Hospital.

The soap opera star, who revealed last fall that he was diagnosed with two cancers — myelodysplastic syndromes and smoldering multiple myeloma — in December 2022, appeared on Monday morning’s installment of Good Morning America, delivering the positive update that he’s back on set, per People. As he highlighted how “very welcoming” and “very supportive” his co-workers have been, he became choked up.

“And here I go already, right off the top  ‘cause I can’t tell you how nice it’s been, the support that I’ve gotten,” he said.

He recalled being told that he would only have three to five years left to live if he “did nothing.”

“I said, ‘Three to five years? Are you crazy? I feel fantastic!'” he shared.

Instead, York sought out a bone marrow donor and underwent chemotherapy, explaining to GMA, “Seven days of chemo in Tennessee, and then I was available to work for, you know, usually three weeks in California.”

He highlighted his “philosophy” as “always [being] one day at a time.”

“Let’s just get through today,” he explained.

"General Hospital" star John York is returning to television after battling two different cancers: "I can't tell you how nice it's been, the support that I've gotten." @Zohreen reports. pic.twitter.com/cfDSXaDQA8

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 17, 2024

While York remained positive shortly after breaking the news of his diagnosis in a September 2023 interview with People, he updated the outlet in November 2023, noting “the long road ahead” of him amid the blood stem cell transplant process. In his interview with GMA, he noted that his announcement regarding his search for a donor, which he luckily found, “has helped.”

“And so many people have joined the registry just to help save someone’s life,” he said.

After receiving the call from NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program), he said he “just couldn’t talk.”

“It’s just a little bag of, you know, blood and fluid and they put it in my body, 40 minutes later and now I’m this person,” he elaborated. “And my cells are now fighting each other and battling each other and getting to know each other. And here we are, back to work.”

York has portrayed Mac Scorpio on General Hospital since 1991, appearing in over 960 episodes, per IMDb. As for what he missed most from his time away, he told GMA that he “felt so attached that [he] didn’t feel like [he] missed anything.”

“Instead I just feel like I had a little break, a little vacation, I guess, and had to go through something,” he added. “And now we’re here on kind of the other side of it.”