Ashley Park thinks it is a "miracle" she's still alive

Noting how using humour "makes it easier" to talk about her problems, she told the new issue of America's Cosmopolitan magazine: "As an adult, I understand what coping mechanisms are. Stuff I didn't know when I was a teenager.

"And even though both of the extreme illnesses I've had have been such flukes in a way - no one who's 15 should have cancer, and no one who's my age should have septic shock - I feel lucky, actually. It's been kind of a miracle how I've recovered."

Ashley was on vacation with her boyfriend and co-star Paul Forman when she fell ill this year and she doesn't "think[she] would have made it" without his support in unfamiliar surroundings.

She said: "When I went to the ER and ICU for the first time, I was in the Maldives with Paul. I don't think I would've made it without him. Everybody else was on the other side of the world from us.

"Once I got there, I got really sick with tonsillitis. Then everything really started going wrong.

"I was in different ICUs and then air ambulances for a month. I couldn't leave because I wasn't allowed to fly.

"When I finally could, it was a shorter distance to Paris than to LA, so I had to go straight to Paris to recover, not home.

"When I woke up in the hospital and they said, 'You have septic shock.' I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I am shocked I have sepsis!' "

Ashley's hospitalisation was a wake-up call for her and she's pledged to take better care of herself in the future.

She admitted: "I pushed myself too far. I was not listening to my body.

"Now, I'm thinking about my future and asking, 'Am I putting myself in a position where I'm going to be able to do my best?' That starts with my health.

"I'm getting back to my old self. I look and feel better, and I'm trying to stay as stable as I can and keep the same energy that people expect."