SHARON OSBOURNE: 'Cancer Was One Of The Best Things That Ever Happened To Me'

Sharon Osbourne has spoken to USA Today about being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in July of last year.

"People don't want to discuss colon cancer," says Osbourne, who last week was honored by the Women's Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for her work in raising awareness about the deadly disease. The Guild supports Cedars-Sinai physicians, researchers and programs focusing specifically on women's health. "There is no ribbon for it. When I was better my kids were joking, 'Mum why did you have to get colon cancer? Couldn't it have been something else? Why there? This is so typical of you.'"

"Colon cancer is terribly silent and deadly," Osbourne adds. "You don't realize that it's happening. I was tired and I just figured I was working too much or I had too much stress. I had no idea there was cancer inside my body."

"I didn't know anything about a colon before I was diagnosed. I had no idea you could get cancer there. I was sort of in disbelief at first really because I kept thinking it was only for men – you know, that it was prostate cancer. And I kept thinking there was a mistake."

"What really scared me was the chemotherapy," Osbourne admits. "I had heard so much about how difficult it is and how it devastates your body that it terrified me more than the cancer. But I found a way through it because the people that I met on this journey through cancer we so incredible. My cancer is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me because it changed my life for the better.

"This is about being informed," Osbourne urges. "There is nothing to be embarrassed about and you have to go and be checked. You can save your own life."