Olivia Newton-John fought till the end: Inside her last hours
Aside from radiating joy and positivity with her presence and dazzling smile, late actress and singer Olivia Newton-John openly discussed her breast cancer diagnosis, allowing millions of women in her situation to understand they are not alone in their fight.
Newton-John learned of the sad illness shortly after releasing her third smash collection, Back to Basics: The Essential Collection 1971-1992. This put her tour on hold, and she underwent a partial mastectomy of her right breast within 24 hours after learning she had cancer.
Doctors assured her that everything would be alright, but she remained apprehensive.
“I draw strength from the millions of women who have faced this challenge successfully,” she was quoted as saying at the time.
Nine months after the operation and everything that followed, Newton-John became a breast cancer advocate.
She switched to healthy eating and chose to spend millions on a “greenhouse” to help her fight cancer.
“When I learned I had cancer, I kept asking myself, ‘Why?'” All I could think about was how the illness could have been caused by the environment we were living in,” Olivia told the Sunday Mirror in 1993.
“I kept wondering if it was the air we were breathing or the water we were drinking in Los Angeles.” “I felt hemmed in; there are too many people in LA.”
In a 1994 interview with the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Olivia stated that embracing all of the support from family, friends, and fans was an important part of her healing process.
“As a woman, it’s sometimes very hard to focus on yourself,” she told me. “We’re constantly focused on our families and everyone else outside ourselves. We always finish last. You know, Mom usually gets the smallest potato.”
Newton-John was advised in 2017 that her cancer had reappeared, this time spreading to her spine.
“I am feeling good and enjoying total support from my friends and family, along with a team of wellness and medical practitioners both here in the United States and at my Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia,” she said in a statement. In 2013, she revealed to the public that she had also been diagnosed with cancer.
“Many people see it as a struggle, and it’s really up to you how you interpret it. I consider it a part of my identity, whatever that may be. “I see it as part of my mission, maybe,” she explained.
Newton-John has made significant contributions to cancer research through her charity. The Olivia Newton-John Foundation.
Totti Goldsmith, the actress’s niece, spoke of Newton-John’s final days and how difficult it was for the family to see her health deteriorate. “It’s not surprising; we’ve known she’s been sick, especially in the last five days,” Totti, who lives in Melbourne, told A Current Affair.
She stated that she and her aunt spoke on FaceTime for the last time. “I told her all I needed to say. “She was leaving us, but I could tell she understood,” Totti recounted.
“She was really skinny and really unwell and I said to her, ‘Are you afraid of dying?” Totti recalls.
“She said, ‘Plonker’, which was my nickname, ‘I’m not, I’m not afraid, I’ve done more in my life than I could have dreamed’.
“She honestly never imagined her life would be how it was.”
Newton-John passed away on August 8. May she rest peacefully.
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