'Blue Bloods' Alum Reveals Cancer Battle

Actor Erik Jensen has been diagnosed with cancer. The Blue Bloods and Walking Dead alum has Stage IV colorectal cancer, The Blast reports. Also known as colon cancer, it's a growth of cells that form in the lower end of the digestive tract. Jensen's wife, Jessica Blank, shared the news on a GoFundMe page to help raise funds. As of the time of this writing, the GoFundMe has raised over $110,000 of the $300,000 goal in just a week of its launch.

"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," Blank wrote on the GoFundMe. After explaining how he is a "devoted father to 13-year-old Sadie" and "an incredible husband to Jessica, his partner in art and life for the last 23 years," the post praises Jensen for his hard work and generosity in the hopes of making the world a better place. "He needs to help his daughter grow up. He needs to stick around for the beautiful community he and Jess have built. And he has a lot more art to make in the world."

Unfortunately, the cancer has "metastasized to his liver," but since Erik is young and strong, "his doctors have a shot at shrinking the tumors enough to do two very major surgeries and get them all out." However, with the struggles that the industry is going through right now with the lack of residuals and the SAG-AFTRA strike, the couple is at risk of losing their insurance. "If you are able to contribute financially to help get their family through this- please do," the post continued. "If you have a wide social media following/fanbase who might contribute at your urging and are willing to post this, that would also help immensely."

The post also noted that Stage IV is "not a death sentence," and Jensen is "determined to make it through this, and he's working incredibly hard to stay positive and fight for the shot that his doctors know he has." Jensen is most known as Dr. Steven Edwards in three episodes of The Walking Dead in 2014. He's also been in Blue Bloods, NCIS: Los Angeles, Leverage, New Amsterdam, Alias, CSI, The Blacklist, Law & Order: SVU, and Mindhunter. His most recent role was as Dez O'Reilly on the canceled ABC thriller For Life, which ran for two seasons before getting canceled in 2020.