37 Year Old Canadian Actress DX'd W/Multiple Myeloma

Lisa Ray fighting rare cancer
Toronto star of Cooking With Stella is optimistic as she's treated for bone marrow disease myeloma
Sep 10, 2009 04:30 AM
Linda Barnard Movies Editor
Actress Lisa Ray isn't letting a rare cancer diagnosis stop her from appearing on the red carpet at the TIFF gala premiere of Cooking With Stella next Wednesday.

The Toronto actress, who also starred in Bollywood/Hollywood and Water, posted the news on her blog The Yellow Diaries: "I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma on June 23rd. Started my first cycle of treatment July 2nd.

"Myeloma is incurable."

Ray describes the illness as "a relatively rare cancer of the bone marrow" and says at age 37 she is younger than most patients, who are usually diagnosed at age 65. But the model-turned-actress is steadfast in her optimism about her health.

She is undergoing treatment in Toronto and says on her blog, "with an ever expanding toolbox of treatments and awareness ... this cancer can be beat. So I'm going to do everything I can to wrench the spotlight onto myeloma and cancer awareness. I believe it can be cured. That's the dirty realist in me ... I'm aiming for full remission."

Ray wrote she was feeling so unwell before her diagnosis, "it was a relief to hear what was wrong."

When she got the news, "I didn't react and I didn't cry. I'm an actress, believe me, I can be dramatic. Not just then, though."

Her blog is peppered with wit and humourous observations, like the fact some medications make her constantly hungry. "Who knew it would turn me into a free range chicken, pecking the landscape?"
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More here.

This is her blog.