Olivia Newton-John reveals second battle with breast cancer

OLIVIA Newton-John has revealed she underwent a secret second battle with breast cancer six years ago, with the diagnosis coming after a car accident in LA.

OLIVIA Newton-John has revealed she underwent a secret second battle with breast cancer six years ago.

The superstar singer makes the revelation in her new autobiography, Don’t Stop Believin’, released tomorrow.

Newton-John, who turns 70 on September 26, is still undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with cancer for a third time last year.

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Olivia Newton-John. Picture: Denise Truscello

Her “secret” cancer diagnosis came in May 2012 following a car accident in LA where her niece Tottie Goldsmith was one of the passengers.

A lump in her right shoulder from where her seatbelt hit her during the crash continued to cause her pain, which led the singer to trust her instincts after doctors said it was just a slight fracture.

“I insisted on additional testing and found the bump was actually a recurrence of my breast cancer,” Newton-John writes in her memoir.

She kept the diagnosis secret and went to a clinic in Georgia “where they help people deal with illness in a natural way without prescription drugs”.

The oestrogen blocking medicine she was prescribed led to depression, so Newton-John relied on husband John Easterling’s Amazonian herb formulas and liaised with the oncology team at her Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne during her 2012 treatment.

Olivia Newton-John and husband John Easterling. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

In the book Newton-John reveals she is having photon radiation therapy to tackle her third bout of cancer, again mixing natural therapies with conventional ones, but only had chemotherapy when initially diagnosed in 1992.

Easterling has also created his own strains of medicinal cannabis for his wife.

“This has helped me greatly with pain and sleep” she also states of the “much maligned” plant, adding “my dream is that it won’t be long before everyone has access to this healing medicine”.

Newton-John is treating her third cancer battle with her trademark positivity.

“Cancer is something I will need to say on top of for the rest of my long life. I truly believe this will be my final round with cancer. I truly believe it will be like last time and I will go on with my life.”

Newton-John arrives in Australia this week to promote her book and take part in her annual Wellness Walk and Research Run next Sunday.

She will be interviewed on Channel 7’s Sunday Night tonight.

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