Olivia's Breast Cancer Fight
The Aussie singer's made it her mission to help women win the battle against breast cancer
The talented, bubbly and perennially youthful Olivia Newton-John never seemed to be a candidate for tragedy. But on July 2, 1992, the fresh-faced Aussie beauty who was immortalised as Sandy in Grease discovered she had breast cancer.
Olivia won her battle with the disease and, 12 years on, her passion for life, family and music has never been stronger, And the 56-year-old singer’s now devoted to ensuring women across the world can be as lucky in their battle with the insidious disease as she’s been.
In between recording, touring with her brand-new album Indigo: Women Of Song (recently released in Australia) and being a mum to daughter Chloe, 18, Olivia’s waging her war of awareness through the Liv Kit campaign. She’s teaching women about self-examination, prevention and how to confront head-on the very real threat of breast cancer.
Each Liv Kit contains Liv Aid (a breast self-examination device which comes in a velvet pouch), a journal and an illustrated booklet to write in.
“I’m always surprised when women say to me they don’t self-examine because they’re scared they might find something,” Olivia says. “They’re frightened, and I understand that, but it’s much better to know than not to. The earlier you detect something, and the quicker you can get treatment, the better chance you have.”
Here the multi-tasking star chats to Woman’s Day…
How did your name end up on the Liv Kit product?</br> An Aussie guy came to see me in Vegas with the product, which was only available to doctors. He wanted to launch it to the public and knew I’d been through breast cancer. Once I saw it, I was sold! I actually drew the “Liv” logo on the napkin at that lunch and I thought, Liv, what does it mean? I want to live, it’s part of my name. So I said, “I don’t know how much you want me to be involved, but I just came up with this,” and then, of course, the “L” is the breast-cancer symbol. So it was all just fate!
Where do you find time for breast-cancer work when you’re so busy performing?</br>
It takes a lot to do this, but when you hear the women’s stories… I get a lot come up to me who are going through it or have just been through it. And it makes me feel good that they see I’m 12, 13 years down the line and I’m OK.
When I was into the first year or two, a woman in Australia said to me, “I got through breast cancer. I had it 20 years ago,” and that moment was monumental for me. It was like, wow! She’s 20 years on and those treatments weren’t as good back then.
I’m hoping the next generation of women don’t have to worry about this disease. I really want to tell my daughter she doesn’t have to worry about it, that’s my goal.
One woman, who was in New York at the Liv Kit launch, said her doctor had found a lump on a mammogram, but she couldn’t feel it. So she took a Liv Aid into the bathroom and felt the lump for the first time. She came out crying, saying now it’s become real for her. These stories are so powerful.
I’ve learnt so much and I’ve become more open. If you’d said , to me before it happened that I’d be talking about breasts in public, on TV, it would never have occurred to me - I was always very private. It wasn’t done, not in my family. Here I am talking about examining your breasts and lumps and all this stuff. It’s normal and it’s healthy and it’s been very freeing for me in a lot of ways. And also knowing I’m giving hope to other women.
You sound as if you’re busier than ever!</br>
I am! I toured all September, I’ve got the Liv Kit to promote and I made an album, which is out in Australia right now. It’s called Indigo: Women Of Song and it’s a tribute album to the women in my life who influenced me in the beginning of my career, [and] songs that touched me.
Anyone Who Had A Heart [by Cilla Black] was the first song I sang on [Johnny O’Keefe’s) Sing, Sing, Sing when I won the talent contest.
Alfie [by Dionne Warwick) is my sister Rona’s favourite song. My late father gave me a Nina Simone album, I sing a song from that.
I sing a Karen Carpenter song - she was a friend of mine. I do one by Minnie Riperton, who was the first person I’d met and admired to die of breast cancer. So each song has some kind of meaning.
I dedicated the whole album to my mum [who died last year]. I wish she’d got to hear it… she would’ve really loved this album.
How do you feel about your daughter Chloe releasing her first album next year?</br>
I never dreamt this would happen. It’s funny, isn’t it? She’s been around the music industry her whole life. It’s second nature to her to have a crew in the house or a photographer following us around - she’s very comfortable with it.
At the same time, Chloe doesn’t have any illusions about the life. She sees how hard I work, the travel. She’s made a few movies, she knows what that’s like. I worry about her like any mother would with any daughter, no matter how old they are. And you adore them, but I feel confident she’ll have a wonderful life doing it.
You do work so hard…</br>
I know, I’m crazy! I was thinking about that the other day, why do I do it? Obviously I like it. But unfortunately [after recording the album], I have to do the promotion, and it’s exhausting.
I’m taking longer and longer breaks now. I have my eyes on spending a lot more time in Australia at my farm. I guess I’ll know the time to step down gracefully. I have a lot of energy and I don’t know what I’d do with it if I wasn’t putting it into something creative. I think it keeps me youthful.
When it comes time to do the tour, does the reality become daunting?</br> I’m very fortunate - my band’s a wonderful group of people who I really like as human beings as well as great musicians. We are like a family. I think if I wasn’t [touring] with them, maybe I wouldn’t want to do it - it really wouldn’t be as much fun.
The crowd went crazy when you played recently in LA - is the audience reaction a major part of your drive?</br> Yeah, they really loved it in LA, didn’t they? I’ve never really done covers before. They were really alive, they were lovely. I was really nervous because it was LA. The hometown thing’s a big thing. In Melbourne, I can’t help thinking my mum’s in the audience. Family’s always harder [to perform in front of] than strangers, weirdly enough.
Story: Michelle Day