Grammy winner and “Grease” star Oliva Newton-John continues to be a positive force for others battling cancer.
“I’ve lost way too many friends to cancer and you know, I’m on that journey myself, so I’m powerfully driven to find kinder answers for treatments for cancer, prevention, and treatments,” the Australian star tells ET Canada. Newton-John is once again partnering with Julien’s Auctions to sell off some of her personal memorabilia and items to raise money for the Olivia Newton-John Foundation, which helps fund the discovery of gentler cancer therapies.
Newton-John has been a big advocate for health awareness since she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. She is now facing her third bout with the disease.
“I have some artwork, I have some clothes, I have some gold records, and I have some things that I’ve made, and we have the belt I wore in the ‘Grease’ singalong I did with John Travolta last year,” she says of the auction.
The actress has kept in touch with her “Grease” co-star over the years. The actor’s wife Kelly Preston succumbed to breast cancer earlier this year.
“You know, John and Kelly chose to keep her illness secret and private and I want to honour that and just say they are dear friends and I really you know, she was a beautiful human,” Newton-John says.
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Newton-John has remained good friends with Travolta and Didi Conn, her co-star in the 1978 musical.
“[John]’s a dear friend and he always will be and you know Didi, also,” she says. “We formed great bonds making that film as you can imagine and it’s always amazing to me that every…it’s 40 years now and every 10 years I thought… it’s going to fade away now but it just gets bigger and bigger and it seems to find a younger audience all the time it’s really quite amazing.”
