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Australian actor and comedian Magda Szubanski has revealed she has been diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer.
In an Instagram post on Thursday, the Kath and Kim star said she had mantle cell lymphoma — which she described as a “rare and fast-moving blood cancer”.
“I won’t sugar-coat it: it’s rough. But I’m hopeful. I’m being lovingly cared for by friends and family, my medical team is brilliant, and I’ve never felt more held by the people around me,” she said.
Szubanski mentioned she is fortunate to be getting “absolutely world-class care” in Melbourne and will be “lying very low while my immune system takes a hammering”.
Szubanski said the “obscure” cancer had only been discovered incidentally via a breast screening that detected her lymph nodes were up.
She said she had been feeling unwell for some time and had asked for additional blood tests, leading to the discovery.
“So the takeaway is — get tested and listen to your body,” she wrote on Instagram.
Szubanski first burst onto Australian screens in the mid-1980s.
She is best known for winning the hearts of Australians as the sporty, unlucky-in-love Sharon Strzelecki in the sitcom Kath and Kim.
That sparked character roles in the smash-hit movies Babe and Happy Feet (and both sequels), among others.
What is mantle cell lymphoma?
According to the Leukemia Foundation, mantle cell lymphoma affects the outer-edge, or mantle zone, of B-cells in the lymph node follicle.
It accounts for about five to 10 per cent of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas, with the average age at diagnosis between 60 and 65 years.
