Olivia Newton-John puts tour on hold to battle breast cancer

Yeah, I know what you mean.However, it's easily apparent here and in the recent glimpses via Instagram she's looking more youthful and healthy ( at least outwardly) than she has in at least 5 years. Heck, Perhaps longer.

I honestly think it's a combination of new hair style, lightening up on the cosmetic tweaks,and most importantly, just rest and relaxation. She'd been working nearly non stop since She started her residency in Vegas a few years ago. Looking back, I don't think she worked that relentlessly since the early 80s, and the past year may had been her busiest.

I don't care how healthy one is, that kind of schedule can wear anyone down, and it's been theorized that stress and a compromised immune system can lead to new cancers or in the case of a survivor, a reoccurrence. I know, it's just speculating but it's possible there's a connection.

I admire her for her work ethic, but she's nearing 70. Hopefully after she finishes her current tour she takes more time off. I don't think she'll ever retire. She loves singing and being active and creative, and she loves performing for her fans, and as long as she's enjoying it all she shouldn't retire, but I hope she'll take some time off here and there, enjoy her husband and family, and put her health first and foremost.

She uses the word " recovery", which implies remission , which I certainly hope is the case, but metastatic stage 4 cancer isn't anything to take lightly. I just hope she isn't returning to the stage too soon. I think her fans would understand if she took more time off, but to her this may be part of her therapy. Either way, I just want to see her around for a long time yet and have a long happy life.

 

I'm assuming she is planning to return to the stage next week... It does seem a bit soon, so I hope she's making the right decision. She seems eager to get back to work and normality. I don't know that she'll ever go into full remission with this cancer.. Hopefully she be able to lead a good quality life regardless. She hasn't made a statement saying she's beaten it and perhaps won't this time. As long as she's well and able to do what she wants.

 

I hope Olivia wins! Just because I need to say it, and not because I'm looking for sympathy, my sister lost her battle today with metastatic stage 4 cancer. It helps to have the quality of care that Olivia has and the family and friends she has around the world. But for at least one family, it is a grim day today, because another life has been taken by this disease! Let's make it stop.

 

I'm so sorry for your loss. Yes, we do need to make it stop, and I'm glad Olivia is out there doing her part.

 

John, my sympathies on your sister's passing, to you and yours...

 

I'm very sorry to hear that. I was only wondering how she was doing the other day. My sympathies to you and all your family.

 

I'm so sorry for your loss,John. My prayers and thoughts with you all.

Yes, we need to stop this disease. Not just for your sister, not just for Olivia, but for everyone who has to deal with this. From my understanding, Metastatic Cancer in general, breast cancer and otherwise is under funded and not given the attention and research it should. I hope Olivia's battle now increases awareness. It certainly has with me.

 

Glad to see her looking so happy and healthy.

A few years back, I saw a group of women out partying. They were celebrating their friend's recent very successful reconstructive surgery after having beaten breast cancer that had required a double mastectomy.

They had given her a t-shirt that read:

Yeah, they're fake!
The real ones
TRIED TO KILL ME!​

 

John, sorry for your loss, and my thoughts are with you, and your family.

Even with the advances in medicine, there are still some horrible conditions, we have not found a cure for. My mother died from Motor Neurone Disease, so I've got some understanding of the suffering and pain, these diseases cause those, so randomly afflicted, and the feeling of helplessness, that family members also go through.

To end on a positive note, the messages coming from Olivia, are very good to hear, and pray that the continued advances, in both treatment, and cure, continue.

 

My sympathies @John Adam. That's very sad news.


x

 

I've had a week now to process. It seems we all have had to deal with this issue of cancer taking someone away from us prematurely. My heart goes out to all of you that have had to deal with similar losses.
Thank you for your kind words guys! Thank you ONJ for sharing your story.

P.S. You guys are the best!

 

If you don't mind me asking, how old was your sister?

 

35 (!!!)

 

Good lord. You know, I kind of assumed she was doing OK, probably because Olivia seems to be. It's very cruel.

 

It's always hard losing someone close that you love, but that's horrible. Way too young. My sympathies again, John. A cousin in my family passed on at 34 years ago from Hodgkin's over 20 years ago...her mother (still alive) also lost her sister to a brain tumor (becoming, I believe glioblastoma, or something like it(?)) at 56...

 

When you are younger, you get to hear the expression, only the good die young, far too often. Sadly, it is still so true.

May your sister, and all those we lost, far too soon, make up for their short time on this mortal earth, by being at peace, wherever their heaven is.

 

Olivia posted this on Facebook today about her return to the stage:

It makes me so happy to read this. So glad she's doing so well, and I hope she continues to do so well.

 

Thank you so much! Actually "everyone" for their well wishes!

 

She's baaaack! Here's a full performance of Magic from the show in Joilet, IL on Sunday Night.




She IS magic!!!

 

John, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

Thanks buddy! It kind-of related to this thread, so I decided to say something.
But to see Olivia up and around now, (where does that woman get her strength from?) it helps to see someone is recovering. They aren't all that fortunate, or strong-willed!

 

New interview with Olivia from Australia.


OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN TELLS HOW MARIJUANA IS HELPING HER BEAT CANCER

JORDAN BAKER, The Sunday Telegraph
September 2, 2017 3:00pm


IT was in May last year, after an epic tennis match at the home of the friend who wrote her hit song Physical, that Olivia Newton-John first began to struggle with lower back pain so bad she couldn’t walk.

She thought it was sciatica, a nerve pain. It may well have been, because eventually her back felt better, and by May this year she was well enough to pick up a racquet again.

She hit gently and didn’t play long, but the pain came back — with a vengeance. This time, it definitely wasn’t sciatica. An MRI showed that, 25 years after her first breast cancer diagnosis, the cancer had returned, this time in a bone at the base of her spine known as the sacrum.


“I kind of felt innately that something wasn’t right, this pain had been going on for a long time,” Newton-John told The Sunday Telegraph in her first Australian interview since her diagnosis.

“It wasn’t a total surprise, it wasn’t a total shock — probably not the same as the first time.”

The first time was in 1992, when Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump during a self-examination. She had a partial mastectomy and chemotherapy, and her treatment lasted almost a year.

Back then, a cancer diagnosis was considered a death sentence; many people kept it secret. “It wasn’t something that was talked about much,” says Newton-John. “It was frightening. It’s always frightening, but it is something more known about now.”

“I am getting my mobility back to normal all the time.”

Cancer changed Newton-John’s outlook on life. Ever since, her music has focused on healing and gratitude. Cancer survivors are as common as Grease fans at her concerts, and she is passionate about raising money for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne.

So when she faced the disease a second time four months ago, Newton-John could not have been better prepared. “[This time I had] the wisdom to know that I had dealt with it before and could do it again,” she said.
“Everybody has fear when you hear something scary, but I knew that part of the healing was to make the decision that you were going to work through it. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have moments of fear, but I was pretty determined that I would get through.”

This time Newton-John was diagnosed with metastatic cancer, meaning the cancer in her bone was the same cancer she had suffered so long ago. It is a serious diagnosis, but that doesn’t mean the disease can’t be beaten or managed like a chronic illness.

She has responded well to treatment. “As far as I am concerned, my pain level is gone,” she says. “I had terrible pain — I was limping and walking like a duck and a penguin for a while, [but] that part of it is gone.

She has learned to love swimming, the only exercise that doesn’t put pressure on her bones.

“I am getting my mobility back to normal all the time, but I have done tests of course to see that things are better, have had my blood work tested, and these things lead me to believe that I am on top of it.

“I used to believe that cancer was one of those diseases that you can manage and live with. I know many women who have done that, that’s what I imagine will be my life, but I am positive and hoping that I can get rid of it to the extent that everything is fine.”

She has had photon radiation therapy, but also uses natural remedies. One of the most important of those is cannabis, which is legal and easily obtained in Newton-John’s home state of California (her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, owns a cannabis farm in Oregon).

“I use medicinal cannabis, which is really important for pain and healing,” she says. “It’s a plant that has been maligned for so long, and has so many abilities to heal.”

Newton-John says she will champion its use in Australia, where medicinal use was allowed by the federal government earlier this year, but obtaining the necessary permission — as well as the cannabis itself — is still a long, complicated process and can vary state to state.

“A long disease-free interval is a good prognostic marker.”

“I will do what I can to encourage it,” she says. “It’s an important part of treatment, and it should be available. I use it for the pain and it’s also a medicinal thing to do — the research shows it’s really helpful.”

Since her diagnosis, Newton-John has taken a long break on her farm.

She has learned to love swimming, the only exercise that doesn’t put pressure on her bones.

Her husband John Easterling, has, she says, been “incredibly knowledgeable and smart and calm and loving”.

She doesn’t like talking about her cancer much, so Easterling — an expert on medicinal herbs from the Amazon — has been doing it on her behalf. “My husband has talked to my friends and explained what’s going on,” she says. “I need to focus on being around and being healthy.”


While she will keep her workload light, Newton-John returned to the stage late last month and will tour again in October, singing songs from her Liv On album, which she wrote with two other musicians who have also been touched by cancer.

This weekend she returns to Australia to host a gala and a fundraising walk for the Olivia Newton-John Wellness and Research Centre at the Austin Hospital.

Friday night’s gala will feature her close friends, singers Daryl Braitwaite, with whom she went to school, and John Farnham. This year, she wants to raise $1 million for the Centre.

“My dream is that the whole thing will be about wellness, [and] we will have a way of healing people,” she says.

Next Sunday night she will give her first Australian television interview since her diagnosis to 60 Minutes, to raise awareness of the fundraising walk that will be held on September 17.

Newton-John’s cancer relapse is also sending an important message to long-term breast cancer survivors to be vigilant, because the disease can return.

“We are seeing it more because women are surviving longer.”

“I don’t want to scare women that it could happen again, but it can, you don’t know why,” says Newton John.

Doctor Belinda Yeo, an oncologist and breast cancer specialist at the ONJ Centre, said late relapses were more common with hormone receptor positive breast cancer, the kind suffered by Newton-John.

“We are seeing it more because women are surviving longer, and we are keeping an eye on them longer,” she says.

She would not comment specifically on Newton-John’s case, but Dr Yeo said the severity of a relapse depended on where the cancer returned and how long it took to return.

“A long disease-free interval is a good prognostic marker,” she said. “The patient will almost certainly respond to the treatment again. Many of our patients live for many years, very well and sometimes with very few symptoms.”

Newton-John said she has been buoyed by the support she has received from around the world.

“People send me letters, just the most beautiful well wishes and prayers and love,” she said. “I want them to know that the prayers have worked, and thank you.”

The ONJ Gala will be held on Friday, Sept 8 at Crown Palladium. Donate at onj-centre.giveeasy.org/we-go-together

 

Thanks for this.

Thanks for sharing. All I can say is the woman is a warrior. Her attitude and outlook is enternally positive. It's good to see her opening up and spreading the word and telling her story.

 

I did not know that Chloe owned a cannabis farm. It seems she does have a career of her own! Anyway, it's great to see this rather revealing interview with Olivia.

 

I somehow never read your post, but I´d like to add my name to the list of people offering their condolences. There are no words suitable for an occasion such as this, but I hope that you are able to remember all the good times and cherish the years you got to spend with her.