Patrick Swayze hits out at reports he is close to dying from cancer

Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze has broken his silence about his battle with cancer - to hit back at reports that he is on his last legs.

Swayze, 56, revealed he has felt "fear" and "anger" since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early last year, and admitted: "You bet that I'm going through hell."

He told US interviewer Barbara Walters: "You know there's a lot of fear here. There's a lot of stuff going on. Yeah I'm scared, yeah I'm angry, yeah I'm, 'Why me?'"

Asked if he was scared of dying, he replied, after a long pause, "I don't know." Then he added that staring death in the face has made him question his beliefs.

"I don't know what's on the other side," he said.

"I like to believe that I've got a lot of guardian warriors on my shoulder, including my dad, saying, 'You just let Swayze-dog know it's been his turn all this time. You just let us do the work and we'll finish it for him'.

"So I'm just trying to shut up and let my angels speak to me and tell me what I'm supposed to do."

Swayze has decided to speak up, angered by reports that he was so ill he had said his last goodbyes to loved ones.

He chose Barbara Walters to interview him for Patrick Swayze: The Truth, due to air on US TV today, because "I knew I'd be able to talk straight with you".

Looking skinny but fit, the once muscular Swayze said it was his severe weight loss that set alarm bells ringing.

He said. "I dropped about 20lbs in the blink of an eye."

His cancer battle hasn't stopped him working. Last July, he began filming a new TV series, The Beast, in which he plays an FBI agent.

"Everybody thought I was out of my mind," admits Swayze, who was on set during the week and had chemotherapy at the weekends. He also refused to take painkillers during the shoot saying they "take the edge off of your brain".

Through it all, his wife of 33 years Lisa Niemi has been by his side. He said of her: "I have no greater respect for any other human being.

"What winning is to me is not giving up, no matter what's thrown at me. And I can keep going."