Nancy Collins interviews Olivia Newton-John for Primetime in 1993

Olivia Newton-John was the right girl with the right voice at the right time. At 16, her dazzling singing career took off and didn't stop until this week when her thirty-year battle with breast cancer finally took its toll. Diagnosed in 1990, two years later, her cancer at that point, successfully treated, Olivia, wanting to help other women, share her story," sat down with me for Primetime Live, a candid, matter-of-fact, even humorous reflection on life and how she saved her own. I loved her, admired her attitude. "I had regular checkups with a surgeon, mammograms, a needle biopsy -- nothing showed up" (until a lumpectomy). But I had paid attention to my body, had a feeling something was wrong. I made a decision 'I'm going to be alright.' Let everyone know that I was. There's so much power in thoughts, your mind."

And she was gutsy. Her beauty, charm, sweetness, non-confrontational demeanor masked a subtle,  titanium willpower  clearly a family trait, her grandfather, TK Borne, won a Noble prize) . For three decades, Dame Olivia Newton John, honored by the Queen in TK, dealt with cancer like  everything else in her remarkable life -- she simply got on with it.

• #people_blogs
• #nancy_collins
• #great_people_smart_talk
• #olivia_newton_john
• #grease
• #xanadu