"It's a mixed blessing not knowing what our future brings," says Fran Drescher, best known for her adenoidal drawl in the American hit series The Nanny.

"Women are like tea bags," she adds, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, "We never know how strong we are until we're thrown in hot water".

Drescher exudes a vital presence. Like her world-famous voice, it fills the room and commands attention. No stranger to difficulty, she uses this presence to inspire others to overcome their hardships.

"No one leaves this planet unscathed," she says. "Challenging things happen to good people. We all have stories to share and ways to help each other."

Having experienced a violent rape in her late 20s and uterine cancer in her early 40s, Drescher has been through the tumble of life and has made it out the other side brighter than before.

"My personal philosophy is Carpe Diem," she says, and in her typically self-mocking style adds, "that's why I wrote my first book, Enter Whining. It's all about turning negatives into positives".

Drescher got into show business because she liked to experiment with emotions.

"Acting felt like a career I would never get bored of. I really enjoy the freedom to experience feelings through other characters."

When The Nanny, the show she wrote, produced and starred in, became an instant success in 1993, Nanny Fine became a household name and soon viewers all over the world were tuning in to watch her. In 1999 the show came to an end and so did Drescher's marriage.

"As much as it seems like a romantic notion to marry your high school sweetheart," she jokes, "I really wouldn't recommend it".

When Drescher started feeling "lousy" and experiencing cramping after sex, she went to find out what was wrong with her. It took eight doctors and two years to diagnose uterine cancer.

"Eventually, as a back-up plan, one doctor suggested an endometrial biopsy. When they told me I had cancer my legs went jelly-like and I was sure I was going to die.

"You never picture yourself as someone who has cancer. I was always the strong one in the family, I was the needless daughter."

For the first time in her life, Drescher had to ask for help.

"The cancer was so levelling. It became my opportunity to grow as a person, to become more rounded."

She admits though it didn't feel like that at first.

"The cure, a radical hysterectomy, was like a punishment in itself. I couldn't accept the permanence of the situation I was in. I had no children. Instead, I had a cruel red line going across my pubic bone. I thought I'm never going to be the same woman again."

At her lowest point, completely devoid of energy and being cared for by her parents, Drescher had a moment of clarity.

In so much pain that she was almost unable to move, she was humouring a young cousin who had come to visit her when her cousin started choking.

"I immediately switched into superwoman mode and started doing the Heimlich Manoeuvre, which I'd practiced a few times on The Nanny. A chewed-up piece of chicken popped out of cousin Susan's mouth and she gasped, 'Fran, you saved my life". In fact, she'd saved mine.

"Suddenly I started feeling like my old self again. I wrote a New York Times bestseller, Cancer Schmancer, which was an incredibly cathartic experience."

She started the Cancer Schmancer organisation on the seventh anniversary of her operation. It's a non- profit organisation dedicated to ensuring that all women's cancers are diagnosed in Stage 1, the most curable stage.

"The commonalities shared by women regarding health issues far outweigh their religious, political and cultural differences," she says.

"A hundred years ago women couldn't even vote. Now we have to use that vote to make women's health a major campaigning issue."

She has been appointed a US diplomat by the State Department. Her official title is Public Diplomacy Envoy for Women's Health Issues.

"Whoever thought The Nanny would find herself in congress? It's amazing how women can reinvent themselves. The Nanny has become my launch pad, the means by which I can share my story with other women.

"My advice is to turn pain into purpose. Helping others makes you heal and makes sense out of the senseless. Listen to your body. If you catch it on arrival, it's 90% survival. Women tend to put family first, but there's no better way to do that than by being healthy."

Drescher stresses not to waste time being misdiagnosed.

Live in the moment is her motto.

"Life can give you a side swipe. You gotta be ready to swipe back.

"Sometimes the best gifts come in the ugliest packages. I'm not glad I had cancer, but I'm definitely a better person for it."