Patrick Swayze still smoking despite being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

But if, as reports suggest, Patrick Swayze has only a few weeks to live, he may think it makes little difference.

The once-athletic star of Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and action films such as Point Break looked gaunt as he dragged on a cigarette while waiting for his private plane.

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He had just completed a session of chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer at Stanford University Medical Centre in California.

His thinning hair was hidden beneath a baseball cap.

The 55-year-old star is in pain, but is still fighting and is determined to beat the pancreatic cancer that has ravaged his body, says his 81-year-old mother.

Heartbroken Patsy Swayze, a former Hollywood dance choreographer who encouraged her son to enter showbusiness, said: "Patrick doesn't deserve to get this. He's got such a big heart.

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"He's been such a good and generous and thoughtful person. It breaks my heart to know he's suffering. But he bears it and is determined to beat this."

She told America's National Enquirer magazine: "He's hanging in there and getting the best treatment he can."

Swayze has been a 60-a-day smoker for years, and research shows that smokers are twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer as non-smokers.

Rhita McNair, a close friend of Swayze and his wife of 32 years, Lisa Niemi, said that like the long-running Marlborough Man cowboy cigarette ads, Swayze kept smoking even as he enjoyed the fresh air during horseback rides on his 17,000-acre ranch near Las Vegas.

Miss McNair said that during a recent cattle drive, Swayze looked as though he'd lost about two stones in weight, but "sadly he was still smoking."

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The actor is reported to be receiving radical new treatment, possibly as part of a clinical trial at Stanford University Medical Centre, a cancer hospital in California.

The magazine said this includes experimental drugs and transfusions of blood which has been treated with drugs.

Throughout it all Swayze has so far continued to work, and has been upbeat and cheerful, encouraging people around him, said Bow Trigg, a good friend who has worked on his ranch for years.

Mr Trigg said: "The thing about Patrick is that he isn't like a famous person. He is humble and never lords it over other people."

Swayze, who everyone on the ranch calls Buddy, enjoys barbecues and drinking beer with the hands, he added.

"Sometimes we've gotten so tipsy we have fallen off our horses."

Swayze is also a good and generous boss and neighbour, he said. He's given financial help to local children for college tuition and even though he prefers to avoid the limelight, he turned up recently at Mr Trigg's niece's wedding and danced with the bridesmaids.

"It made their day," said Mr Trigg. 'Buddy is just such a wonderful guy."