Home Alone star gets live-saving cancer treatment after fans raised $100,000 for his surgery

An actor who has appeared in the likes of Home Alone, Armageddon and Groundhog Day has been given an early Christmas present.

Ken Hudson Campbell was diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma back in October, which is a type of cancer that formed in his mouth.

He had done several biopsies in the past and doctors tried to control it, however it became very aggressive this year when he lost his health insurance.

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

His daughter, Michaela, told PEOPLE: "He lost his health insurance with SAG and he had to stop going to the same doctors that he had been going to for a while about his mouth.

"And it discouraged him a little bit and he just didn't really check on it.”

“I think it was really shocking for us because we thought he was taking care of it, at least I did. It was really hard for me to hear and I had a hard time emotionally.

"My dad, he was just in shock about it all.”

Michaela started a GoFundMe for her dad in the hope of raising some cash for surgery to remove the tumour as well as his recovery.

Fans all over the world dug deep and more than $102,000 has been donated to help him.

The surgery required taking out some of his lymph nodes and they took bone from his leg to reconstruct his jaw.

The road ahead will be a long one for the 61-year-old as he will lose a lot of his ability to talk, so speech therapy will be needed in the coming months.

20th Century Fox

Ken and his family cannot believe how generous people have been for his health battle.

Michaela explained to PEOPLE: “The first day we posted it, every time he read something, he would just burst into tears.

"It was the first time he really got emotional about the whole situation.

"It was kind of a shock to him to feel so loved.”

She added: “My family's been struggling for a long time financially. So just having my dad's friends come together, this is just very overwhelming and it really takes a lot of stress off of my family's shoulders.”

Ken is probably most notably known as Santa in Home Alone when Kevin McCallister asks for his Christmas wish.

Topics: Home Alone, Celebrity

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

@stewartperrie