A survivor's story
When Australian singer and actress Olivia Newton-John found a suspicious lump in her breast, she immediately went to her doctor to get an exam. The results of her mammogram and needle biopsy came back normal, which should have been reason to breathe a sigh of relief But Olivia, then in her early 40s, was not satisfied. “I didn’t feel right, and both my surgeon and I had an instinct about it, so he said he wanted to do a surgical biopsy,” Olivia tells OK. The surgical biopsy revealed what Olivia suspected that she had breast cancer. “That’s why I always say to women that if you have an instinct, pursue that.”
Olivia’s instinct was remarkable, however because she was not a likely candidate for breast cancer. “I was very healthy,” she says. “I always ate well, always exercised, hardly drank, never smoked.” But instead of asking. “Why me?” Olivia dealt with the situation head-on. “I just wanted to get through it the best that I could. I had a young child and that’s really all that mattered to me that I would be healthy and live through it to be here for her,” says Olivia.
More tests determined that the cancer had not spread beyond her breast, and Olivia’s doctors recommended surgery (a modified radical mastectomy) and chemotherapy. “I was obviously frightened at first,” says Olivia. “Once I knew it was isolated and it could be treated… I was quite happy with what they suggested.”
But the chemotherapy was not easy. To help her get through it. Olivia sang and wrote music. “Music for me is very healing -particularly singing it because it is like a release for me,” says Olivia. “Creating it really was healthy.”
Fortunately, Olivia’s treatment and her strong spirit, no doubt ultimately wiped out the cancer. Olivia, now 58, has been cancer-free ever since.
A little more than five years after her diagnosis, Olivia began getting involved in breast cancer awareness. “I waited a few years because I wanted to make sure that I was over the five-year mark,” she says.
Since then she has been one of the loudest and most beautiful voices of breast cancer awareness. Most recently, she partnered with the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization to create the Olivia Breast Self-Exam Kit. She is also raising money to build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia (for more information, visit oliviaappeal.com).
Last but not certainly no least, Olivia has just released a CD called Grace and Gratitude, which she hopes wil be soothing to others in much the same way that music has been soothing to her. believe very strongly in the powerful connection between body, heart and spirit,” says Olivia. “This CD shares music that hopefully inspires healing in others.”