Late actor Patrick Swayze felt like "a dead man" the day he was handed his cancer diagnosis. In his newly-released memoir, "The Time of My Life", the Dirty Dancing star recalls the day he was told he was battling pancreatic cancer.

He writes, "When my doctors... said the words 'pancreatic cancer,' a single thought popped into my head: 'I'm a dead man.' I was not ready to go, and I'd be damned if this disease was going to take me before I was good and ready."

But he admits he was up for the battle: "Fighting cancer has been the most challenging eye-opening experience I've ever had, and it has sent me on an emotional journey deeper than anything I've ever felt before. Facing your own mortality is the quickest way possible to find out what you're made of. It strips away all the bulls--t and exposes every part of you, your strength, your weaknesses, your sense of self, your soul. It also leads you to confront life's hardest questions."

Swayze lost his cancer battle on September 13.

Image © Tom Wlack / Photorazzi

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)