Four months ago Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with a particularly vicious bout of pancreatic cancer that we were told would kill him within weeks. Now, though, Patrick Swayze has surprised everyone by looking remarkably healthy – so what gives?

According to Patrick Swayze himself, his apparent recovery is a ‘miracle’. Miracle schmiracle, we say – it’s obvious that Patrick Swayze is doing so well because of a) impressive advances in oncology and b) Patrick Swayze’s realisation that royalties from sales of Ghost DVDs have rocketed since he got cancer and if he hangs around long enough he’ll be able to afford a speedboat.

You’ll have noticed that we haven’t paid too much attention to Patrick Swayze since he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in March. That’s partly because we were respecting Partick’s request for privacy during his treatment, and partly because Miley Cyrus got her pants out and that was obviously way more important.

But since then two major things have happened to Patrick Swayze. Firstly, given that Swayze apparently only had five weeks to live when he was diagnosed, he had to watch while people like Whoopi Goldberg give tributes to him like he was already dead, which much be a pretty weird thing to experience. And secondly?

Secondly Patrick Swayze got better.

The five-week mark came and went and, rather than dying, Patrick Swayze gradually started to look healthier. Last month doctors told Swayze he was well enough to return to work and now he’s made his first statement about his incredible recovery. The Telegraph reports:

Asked about his health, a grinning Swayze, 55, gave a thumbs up and replied: “I’m a miracle, dude, I don’t know why.” … In addition to hospital treatment, the star is sticking to a healthy eating regime in a bid to keep the cancer at bay.

It’s genuinely great news to hear that Patrick Swayze is winning his fight against cancer, and hopefully his health will continue to improve.

A few more months of incremental recovery and maybe Patrick Swayze will even stop being known as a brave cancer survivor and go back to being the bloke who was kind of crappy in Steel Dawn. But for that to happen we all have to believe.