The 57-year-old actress had worked with late Evelyn Lauder - who was the daughter-in-law of cosmetics businesswoman Esee Lauder- on health campaigns for more than two decades when she succumbed to breast cancer back in 2011 and is reminded to "think" about getting a checkup on her own breasts around the month of June, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

She said: "She made me promise to have regular mammograms after that, and to always think of them in June, my birth month, which I do. Evelyn preached self-detection for those too young for mammograms. She always said that women have to be taught at puberty, ideally by a doctor, to check their own breasts "every month, religiously."

The 'Bedazzled' star went on to explain that she feels most proud when she has been able to use her social media platforms to encourage women to go for a check-up as soon as possible if they find a lump and urged women to continue to check themselves for symptoms.

She told PEOPLE: "When people come up to me and say, 'I saw your Instagram post about checking your breasts. I checked myself and found a lump and went to the doctor and was diagnosed with cancer. But I've been treated, and I'm okay.'"

"Those are the achievements that really tick the boxes. Some people will still think breast cancer is a death sentence, whereas in fact, we know it's 90 per cent curable if found early. People need to know that. They also need to know that if they ignore it, if they don't self check, if they don't have regular mammograms when they're of suitable age, it could still be very bad. It's not rosy."