OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN has revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer for the third time.

The Australian actor and singer (69) found worldwide fame in the 1978 movie Grease.

Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, but beat the disease. In 2013, she found out that she had cancer in her shoulder.

Towards the end of a wide-ranging interview on the Australian TV show Sunday Night, she said doctors discovered a tumour at the base of her spine last year.

She has since undergone radiation treatment, and is also treating the disease with natural therapies including medicinal marijuana.

“I’m still treating it, and I’m treating it naturally and doing really well,” she said.

“There are moments [of despair]. I’m human. So if I allow myself to go there, I could easily create that, you know, big fear,” she added.

Marijuana 

Newton-John, a supporter of cancer charities since her first diagnosis, said she was also hopeful growing cannabis for personal medicinal use would become legal in Australia – like in California, the US state where she lives.

“In California it’s legal to grow a certain amount of plants for your own medicinal purposes. So he (husband John Easterling) makes me tinctures … they help with pain, they help with sleep,” she said.

I’m very lucky that I live in a state where it’s legal and that I have a husband that is a plant-medicine man.

“My dream is that in Australia soon it will be available to all the cancer patients and people going through cancer or any kind of disease that causes pain.”

In Australia, medicinal cannabis is legal by prescription from doctors for certain illnesses, although the laws governing its use varies from state to state.

Contains reporting from © AFP 2018