Kylie Minogue (Pic:Empics)
Kylie Minogue says she will be haunted for the rest of her life by the fear that she could be struck down with breast cancer again.
"It's not over," she said in an interview to mark her 40th birthday. "I still go for regular check-ups. The 'voyage' doesn't end suddenly. That's why it's so difficult to talk about it."
Yet as she prepares to celebrate her landmark birthday next month Kylie reveals that she still hopes to start a family, although she currently has no boyfriend. And she doubts whether she'll be wearing hot pants in her 40s.
Kylie said her brush with death had inspired her both musically and in her personal life, while she had been touched by people's kindness during her months of chemotherapy
"I remember one day in Paris during my treatment when I was in a cafe on the corner - and at the time I was really glad if I could make it as far as there. A young man approached me and gave me a rose. He said simply: 'Be brave. We're thinking of you"."
Kylie said one of the ways she coped with breast cancer was by dreaming of performing again.
"It was always my goal throughout this challenge," she said. "Returning to the stage signified returning to a normal life.
"There's also a song on my album called Stars which says that 'the stars don't just shine in one place'. I wanted to say that because even in the darkest moments, there's always beauty and light.
"When I was in hospital with people I'd never met who had my life in their hands, we were able to laugh together, even in terrifying situations."
Kylie said she had been warned against revealing she had cancer, as some people feared it could harm her career. "I'd be lying if I said all of my management were in agreement," she said.
However, she was glad she had decided to go public in May 2005. "It's wonderful to know that in talking about it, I'm perhaps helping women, families and also some men with breast cancer," she said.
Looking back on her career she said her one regret would be writing her most famous song I Should Be So Lucky as she feared being unlucky in love could be her epitaph. "It's frustrating because it's not completely true," she said. "I have been lucky." Kylie, who split up with French actor Olivier Martinez last year, said she has no special plans to mark her birthday, and does not even know who she will spend it with.
The Sunday Mirror told last month how Chilean director Alexander Dahm had spent a few days with her at her London flat.
But Kylie said that while she loved the idea of a family, she did not feel she needed to be a mother to feel fulfilled.
"It's a difficult question, because it's not as easy as that," she told Paris Match. "If it happens, it will be marvellous. I love the idea of a family. But I won't tell myself that I absolutely have to have children to make my life complete."
Asked if she dreaded turning 40, Kylie said: "I prefer to be positive, and I refuse to view ageing as declining because I know my life is better now."
Yet on wearing those famous hot pants, she said: "I can, but I don't know if I'll be doing it! You've got to live in your time. My dresses now have a tendency to grow longer."
Kylie had to get special permission from her doctors to embark on her new world tour, which begins in Paris on May 6.
She deliberately chose the French capital, where she spent most of the four years when she was dating Martinez, because her memories of the people and places inspired her music.
The full interview appears in the current edition of Paris Match.
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