Delta Goodrem has opened up about the life-changing moment she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2003 at 18 – and the eerie ‘premonition’ she had about it.

The 40-year-old singer, who had just broken through as one of Australia’s brightest young stars then, told Davina McCall‘s Begin Again podcast: ‘My whole world changed.’

Delta revealed she experienced a terrifying nightmare shortly before her diagnosis that she believes foreshadowed the devastating news.

‘I went to bed, and I woke up at 3.31am… I had a nightmare, a very dark figure came to me on a grave with a note,’ Delta began.

She said she woke from the dream in fright: ‘I was head-to-toe [in sweat], like I’d been in the ocean, and I was completely frozen with fear.’

The star admitted she began warning her loved ones: ‘Something bad is going to happen to me.’

Delta Goodrem has opened up about the life-changing moment she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2003 at 18 – and the eerie ‘premonition’ she had about it

At the time, Delta had been visiting doctors for symptoms repeatedly dismissed as exhaustion due to her demanding schedule – balancing her role on Neighbours with a whirlwind of international music promotion.

But when a lump on her neck began to grow, her mother insisted she undergo further tests.

Just hours after a biopsy at a Sydney hospital, she was swiftly prepared for surgery and told the diagnosis.

‘I just felt trapped, like an animal in a corner where there’s nowhere to go. You just start shaking,’ she said of hearing the word ‘cancer’ for the first time.

The disease had already spread beyond her neck, forcing her to undergo chemotherapy and radiation.

Despite the gruelling treatment, Delta attended the ARIA Awards that year with a nurse.

Wearing a blonde pixie-cut wig, she accepted multiple trophies, calling it ‘my big night of very gratefully collecting these beautiful statues that I’d dreamed about all my life … It wasn’t exactly how I imagined it, but what depth.’

The Australian singer was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma on July 8, 2003.

The Australian singer was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma on July 8, 2003

Delta revealed she experienced a terrifying nightmare shortly before her diagnosis that she believes foreshadowed the news

In a 2023 interview, Delta opened up about the tough battle she faced as a teenager.

‘I was a young girl with doctors explaining I had to step into a fight for my life,’ she told the Daily Telegraph.

The same week Delta received her diagnosis, her debut album Innocent Eyes topped the ARIA music charts.

‘I am so grateful that 20 years later, we are here making music. It is quite a moment,’ she said.

The Born to Try hitmaker was unable to tour her debut album while undergoing cancer treatment.

She said she was thrilled to finally be able to tour the album and perform songs ‘in that chapter’ that fans never got to hear live.

What is Hodgkin’s lymphoma?

Hodgkin’s is a cancer of the lymphatic system that carries white blood cells throughout the body to fight infection. It usually affects groups of lymph nodes.

The lymph nodes in the neck are the most common site of cancerous tumours in Hodgkin’s, but they can also be found in the armpit, chest, groin and abdomen.

The cancer can spread through the body via the lymphatic system and affect the bones and organs such as the liver, lungs and spleen.

‘That record had stayed number one for eight months and I had never got to play some of these songs live. This is a full circle moment.’

Delta has previously discussed her fight with cancer and how it affected her life numerous times in the past.

In a moving interview with WHO magazine in 2020, she said of the diagnosis: ‘It was like a bomb had gone off.’

‘I remember when I was first told I had cancer, my body went into shock. I shook uncontrollably for the next 24 hours,’ Delta added.

Delta lost her hair due to chemotherapy and said the changes to her physical appearance were ‘confronting’.

She went through a year of cancer treatment.

This included eight months of chemotherapy and two months of radiotherapy.

‘It was very hard to feel beautiful in an external sense – my skin colour had a green tinge to it, there was a lot of steroid effects. It was hard to feel good,’ Delta said.

After beating cancer, Delta said that her health remains her priority.