Olivia Newton-John opens up on cancer battle

She beat cancer 25 years ago and now Olivia Newton-John has revealed she “dreaded” her mastectomy, according to a report published in the Yahoo Lifestyle.

And now she is "grateful" for having cancer because she wouldn't have achieved so much in her life otherwise.

The 68-year-old Australian actress, who famously starred as Sandy in hit musical Grease, was diagnosed with cancer on the same week her father passed away when she was 43-years-old.

After undergoing nine months of chemotherapy and a mastectomy, Newton-John was finally free of the disease and now she has revealed just how hard those times were.

"One night, shortly after it had been confirmed that I needed a mastectomy, I couldn't sleep,” Newton-John told Radio Times magazine.

“I went downstairs, sat in the dark and felt the fear washing over me. I was convinced that the cancer had spread at top speed and was in every part of my body.

"For a few weeks my world was in turmoil, but then I calmed down and started to fight back mentally. Deep down, there was always a tiny nugget of hope inside me that said, 'You'll be ok. You'll make it', and that little voice kept me going."

Newton-John also wrote a column for The Mirror on the moment she found out she was suffering from breast cancer.

“I saw my doctor and had a mammogram and that didn’t show anything. But I insisted there was something there and had a needle biopsy,” she wrote.

“While I was waiting for the results, I flew to see my father who was dying of liver cancer in Australia.

“On the same day, I got the call that my father had died. So it all came at once,” she wrote.

Since winning her battle against her cancer, Newton-John has been an advocate for supporting breast cancer charities and raising awareness about the disease, says the report in the Yahoo Lifestyle.