By Zoe Papadakis | Monday, 26 October 2020 11:22 AM EDT
Olivia Newton-John is opening up about her cancer and the positive impact it has had on her life. The four-time Grammy winner was diagnosed with the disease for the third time in three decades in 2017, but has refused to play the role of victim. Instead, Newton-John is looking at the good things that have come from the diagnosis.
"I don’t know what I would be without it now," she told The Guardian in an interview published Monday. "I see it as my life’s journey. It gave me purpose and intention and taught me a lot about compassion."
Newton-John added that cancer was not necessarily a "death sentence."
"It has been a gift. I don’t wish it on anyone else," she continued. "But for me, it’s been important in my life."
Newton-John was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 and underwent a partial mastectomy and reconstruction. She was diagnosed with breast cancer again in 2013, but managed to fight it. Then, in 2017, it returned. The disease eventually spread to her bones and forced the actress to have to learn to walk again after she fractured the base of her spine in 2018.
Despite her health problems, Newton-John said she refused to think of herself as sick with cancer.
"I choose not to see it as a fight either because I don’t like war. I don’t like fighting wherever it is – whether it’s outside or an actual war inside my body," she explained. "I choose not to see it that way. I want to get my body healthy and back in balance. Part of that is your mental attitude to it. If you think: 'Poor me,' or 'I’m sick,' then you’re going to be sick."
Newton-John said she was now putting a positive spin on her diagnosis.
"Three times lucky, right?" she said. "I’m going to look at it like that. Listen, I think every day is a blessing. You never know when your time is over; we all have a finite amount of time on this planet, and we just need to be grateful for that."
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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