Despite battling metastatic breast cancer for the last three years, Olivia Newton-John says she’s feeling great and shared details about her newly launched cancer organization, the Olivia Newton-John Foundation, during a recent interview with NBC News’ Natalie Morales on Today.
“My update is very good,” said Newton-John, age 72, regarding her health. “I’m doing well.”
Newton, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer three times—in 1992, 2013 and 2017—has been relying on natural remedies, a healthier diet and radiation to treat her illness. She has also used medical marijuana to manage cancer-related pain, as Cancer Health previously reported. Newton also credits plant-based remedies “way beyond cannabis” with helping her regain her strength. “I have seen the incredible beauty of the plants and their healing abilities,” she said in a launch video for her foundation. “It has made me extraordinarily fascinated by it.”
With the help of medicinal plants, she’s been able to live beyond cancer, something she hopes everyone living with the disease can achieve.
“Cancer can engulf your mind and your being,” she explained. “I try not to live my life with that in my mind all the time. I live beyond it, I love beyond it and I sing beyond it.”
Her foundation was created with that vision in mind. Its goal is to realize a world beyond cancer that puts people at the center of everything it does, including funding research into kinder therapies and advocating for more effective ways to prevent, treat and cure cancer.
Newton-John’s husband, John, an herbal medicine expert, introduced her to plants besides cannabis that have helped strengthen her body. “There hasn’t been scientific research into these other ways of treating cancer,” she explained. “Once we start the research, we’ll know what works. That’s the dream.”
But Newton-John isn’t advocating for an all-or-none approach to cancer treatment, reported Morales. She has utilized a combination of conventional medicine and natural therapies to treat her cancer. For her right now, she told Morales, it’s all about pain management and staying strong and healthy.
While launching her new foundation, Newton-John has been safe at home, spending quality time with her family and animals. She’s grateful for that as well as having a routine and time to relax.
“You can make a choice to see the good or the negative,” she said. “That will be how your life goes. If you see the positive in things, you’ll go towards that.”
For related coverage, read “A Metastatic Breast Cancer Diary: Jamil Rivers.”
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