It started with a trip to the barbershop. It was mid-2021, the country had recently come out of lockdown, and actor Finnian Garbutt went to get a haircut. Readying himself for his usual, the then 25-year-old was seated when his barber noticed something small, but different: a new mole behind his ear.
What followed is a surreal and fast-moving, yet years-long, chain of events. The removal of the mole led to a stage 3 skin cancer diagnosis in late 2021. Three surgeries then followed, along with a year of daily chemotherapy tablets.
The intensive treatment seemed to work and, career-wise, things were looking up too. Finnian landed a role in the popular BBC crime drama Hope Street, filmed in Northern Ireland, close to where he grew up. But a pre-filming hair and make-up appointment is where things changed again. “You go in for a continuity haircut, so that they can see what haircut that you’re going to have for the series,” he says. “I got them to take a picture of the original mole site, and there was a big lump.” This was swiftly removed, and yet more treatment followed.
Fast-forward to August 2024, and Finnian and his wife Louise were expecting their first baby. “Two weeks before my daughter was born, they said that they’d found [cancer] in my liver and in my lungs, and it was incurable,” he tells me over the phone.
Earlier this month, 28-year-old Finnian shared an update on social media, explaining that his cancer team had admitted him for tests. “Unfortunately, the scans have shown that the cancer has progressed rapidly in my body and I am now entering the last stages of my life,” he wrote.
“The whole thing has been totally crazy,” Finnian says, speaking from the County Antrim house he shares with Louise, baby daughter Saoirse, and their three dogs. When it comes to coping mentally, he has a “rather me than anyone else” outlook. “I’ve probably still not got my head around it all but I think for me, the important thing was that this was happening to me and not anybody else. So that’s kind of the way I’ve dealt with it.”
“It has been really tough. Anytime I get emotional about it, I just sort of think of that, because I wouldn’t want to see anybody go through this.”
To say Finnian’s pragmatism is astounding would be a huge understatement. He’s speaking today to put his story out there in his own words, after years of sharing snippets on Instagram. Right from that first diagnosis, the actor has posted about the reality of living with cancer, his updates on the app veering between behind-the-scenes photos from set and sweet family snaps, to post-surgery selfies and pictures of countless chemotherapy tablet boxes. It lays plain the juggling act he’s been pulling off for years – which is also clear when you take a quick glance at his impressive run of work.
Having watched Hope Street in his hospital bed while recovering from one of the earliest surgeries, Finnian landed a part on the show and appeared as PC Ryan Power in 30 episodes. There have also been audiobooks and a short film, as well as Housejackers, his upcoming, first feature-length project.
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The chaotic, fun “and also kind of dark” comedy-drama sees Finnian play Raymond, a man who is pulled back into his old life after a chance encounter with his estranged brother. Housejackets premiered at Belfast Film Festival last November, the actor and his loved ones piling into the cinema where he wrestled with the “surreal” experience of seeing himself on the big screen for the first time. “I don’t know if I really enjoyed it or if I kind of wanted to hide, but it was just amazing.”
The movie will be given a full release later this year. Meanwhile, in the past four weeks, Finnian’s cancer has progressed “a bit too quick”. Dull hip pain moved across to his back, gradually becoming “worse and worse”. Emergency scans revealed the cancer in his liver had grown, and there are now tumours on either side of his hips, with the cancer having spread to his bones.
“At the minute, life is very, very uncomfortable,” he says. “It’s just crazy how quickly and rapidly that came on, because the entire time before that, I felt absolutely fine. Everything I can do in my life has drastically changed in the past few weeks. I don’t drive anymore, and it’s sort of every day, the pain is getting worse.”
It was this latest turn of events that sparked the launch of a GoFundMe, set up to help Finnian’s wife and daughter in the wake of his death. “I think people have a conception with actors, that they’re millionaires,” he says. “And you know, ‘Why are you putting up a Crowdfunder? Why wouldn’t I have just saved up all this money and done it?’. But the reality is that’s not true. I’ve only been in the industry for a couple of years, I’m not rich.”
His voice cracking, Finnian continues: “I’ve just always wanted to be the person that looks after my family and the last thing I want is my wife having to move house with a one-year-old and being financially stressed and not knowing when to get back to work and not knowing how long to take off. I just find that part really hard.
“I do not want anyone to donate if they cannot. If they cannot afford to, please, please, please, please don’t [donate], but share it and it’ll just help my baby have some form of life that isn’t just, ‘Where’s my daddy?’”
His story has, understandably, struck a chord and within just days, donations surpassed the £50k mark. “I just can’t put into words how much I appreciate it,” Finnian says. “Anybody who’s [donated]… they have no idea how much they’re helping and how much we appreciate it, and how much it’s going to take the stress off me dying.”
With his daughter Saoirse exactly one-and-a-half (they’re having a party this weekend to celebrate), Finnian is, at the end of the day, a young dad simply trying to do his best while confronting a reality many of us can barely comprehend.
“The one thing that I wanted when I was diagnosed and we knew that we were having Saorise, was to live to the point where she would remember me,” he says. “At the minute, she’s my best friend. She doesn’t call me daddy, she calls me ‘Dagin’, and she’s chasing me around, hugging me and everything. I know that at this moment in time she knows me, but when I die, she’s not going to have those memories of me and that’s very, very difficult.
“I wanted to take her in to her first day at primary school. Everything that a parent wants is what I want and unfortunately, that can’t happen.”
It’s hard to find the positives but with his acting career, Finnian has both fulfilled plenty of his own ambitions and created a legacy of work his daughter will one day be able to enjoy.
“It’s amazing that I’ve been on the TV and stuff so she can maybe see me on there and Louise can say ‘There’s daddy,’” he says. “I’ve done audiobooks as well, I did a children’s audiobook that I think she would really like so there’s that opportunity for her to listen to that and hear my voice.”
There are other plans in place too. “We’re working with some charities that are going to come and help do wee hand prints and they can turn that into jewellery. I think at the minute, because things are still very raw, writing the birthday cards and stuff might be a bit too tough, but that’s something that I’m definitely going to be doing.” He’ll be buying Saoirse a traditional Irish clodagh ring too, “just little things like that for her to remember me”.
It’s a hugely difficult conversation but Finnian is acutely aware of the impact a twentysomething man sharing his cancer story could have.
“I was always ashamed of going to a doctor or whatever, you know, and I think a lot of young people feel that way,” he says. “So I wanted people to know that you should just go and speak to somebody if you feel like something’s wrong.
“Most people associate [skin cancer] with older people, but it can affect anybody. A lot of people have this preconception of, ‘Oh, it’s just skin cancer, you just cut it off and you’re fine.’ But melanoma, it’s deadly and it’s going to be the reason that I die.”
They’re tough words to hear, but Finnian is determined to leave behind some true positives: a stable life for his young family, while doing everything he can to raise awareness along the way.
You can donate to the Garbutt family’s GoFundMe here. The NHS has further information on melanoma skin cancer, including the symptoms to look out for.
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