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The Prevent Cancer Foundation joins the world in mourning the death of actress, singer and advocate Olivia Newton-John. Newton-John, 73, passed away after a 30-year battle with breast cancer. After being treated for breast cancer in 1992, Newton-John battled the disease again in 2013. In 2017, she announced her breast cancer had recurred for a third time and had metastasized to her spine.
Newton-John was a cultural icon best known for starring in the 1978 classic “Grease” and was a four-time Grammy Award-winning singer and actress. Her mastery of pop music with flairs of country, folk, rock and disco resulted in multiple chart-topping albums of the 1970s and ’80s that remain beloved today, just as Newton-John herself was.
Upon her initial diagnosis, Newton-John became a fierce advocate for the advancement of cancer research and treatment. The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre—a comprehensive cancer center in Melbourne, Australia—was established by Newton-John as a public hospital to treat cancer and conduct research and clinical trials. She also created the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund to fundraise for different treatments and therapies, such as plant-based medicine, to cure cancer.
The Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund is dedicated to all forms of cancer treatments. It was very important to Newton-John that it be established as a pan-cancer organization and was not solely funding breast cancer research. In a 2020 interview with “Good Morning America,” Newton-John expressed her dreams of imagining a “world beyond cancer.”
“That’s everything that drives me forward. To think that we could help people to live in a world where cancer was just something that you treated like diabetes, or asthma, or the flu, or you know, something that you could live well with, which I’m doing. And I hope to continue to do that for a long time.”
We are committed to continuing the work Newton-John tirelessly advocated for, carrying on her legacy so that one day, we can dare to imagine a world where no one dies of cancer.
If you have questions about preventing breast cancer or detecting it early, the Prevent Cancer Foundation is here for you with the resources and information you need.
