Olivia Newton-John sent a letter to Delta Goodrem when she was diagnosed with cancer
The 34-year-old singer and actress plays the ‘Grease’ star in the new Lifetime biopic ‘Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You’, but first met the 70-year-old star as a child when she spent a lot of time hanging around backstage at various events
19 February 2019
And when Delta was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2003 at the age of 18, she was surprised to receive a “beautiful letter” from Olivia, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer several years earlier in 1992.
Delta said: “She sent me a letter when I got diagnosed with cancer and she said beautiful words and told me that, ‘One day, you’ll see this is a gift and understand to give back and let people know you can be a tower of strength.’ So that was my next beautiful letter from her. Then we ended up writing songs together for her album and for her charity [so] that was the start of our friendship.”
The ‘Born To Try’ hitmaker even got a call from Sir Elton John on her first day of chemotherapy, who told her the whole of Britain hoped she got “better”.
She added: “I went from planes, trains and automobiles to my whole world [being] haematologists and oncologists. I began the fight. That’s life. I was surrounded by beautiful family and the whole country and we had special moments - I’ll never forget Elton John calling me on my first day of chemotherapy and saying, ‘On behalf of Britain, we hope you feel better.’ It was a pretty extraordinary time.”
Olivia, meanwhile, has since been diagnosed with breast cancer a further two times and is currently on the road to recovery following her third diagnosis, which Delta believes is “incredible”.
Speaking to People magazine, she said: “The fact that she’s, right now, on the road to recovery and she’s staying on schedule and she’s coming back with a book tour in March is incredible. She’s so positive and stands there as a warrior. That’s what I think you learn in the biopic, you realise that through everything that happens to her, she wants to make sure that other people remember to fight. There’s a reason for everybody knowing about what she goes through in music or anything so that she can bring good and make a difference in the world.”
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