www.seattletimes.com: If you, like me, wondered if Dame Maggie Smith didn’t look just a bit under the weather in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” you weren’t seeing things: The great British actress, now 74, was in the middle of treatment for breast cancer at the time.

“I felt . . . I was just . . . It [the cancer treatment] leaves you so flattened. I’m not sure I could go back to theatre work, although film work is more tiring. I’m frightened to work in theatre now. I feel very uncertain. I haven’t done it for a while [her last stage role was in The Lady from Dubuque in 2007]. I’m not quite sure if it’s like getting back on a horse or a bike. Not that I’d do either, I’d fall off…”

Smith has been given the all-clear by her doctors (though she’s still being followed closely) and has a new film completed, the British drama “From Time To Time.”

Read more here.

OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH!

Visit www.nbcam.org to learn more about Breast Cancer and what you can do to help!

I am so saddened to hear that she has been afflicted with Breast Cancer, but thrilled to hear that she has been given the all-clear! I hope she can get back to the stage that she loves so much.

My heart goes out to all women and their loved ones who are forced to battle with Breast Cancer; it has been the cause of much grief in my own family and I feel for those of you who it has also affected. <3 Stay strong and live for today! xoxo

How has Breast Cancer affected you?