Her famous derriere has dominated celebrity columns for years and, more recently, it was her reported 16ins waist making the front pages as she donned a corset for her sell-out Showgirl tour.

But the shocking news that Kylie Minogue has breast cancer has put the singer's body in a more sombre spotlight.

The Australian popstar, who turns 37 this month, has cancelled the Australian leg of her tour and withdrawn from headlining the Glastonbury Festival to receive treatment.

The diagnosis was confirmed this week in Australia, according to her management company, which said: ''Whilst at home in Melbourne with her family this week prior to her Australian Showgirl Tour, Kylie was diagnosed with early breast cancer.

''She will undergo immediate treatment and consequently her Australian tour will not be able to proceed as planned.''

Kylie has been unlucky - at the age of 36, she has a one in 200 chance of getting breast cancer, although the average lifetime risk is about one in nine. Of the 41,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK, just 8,000 are women under the age of 50.

In the North-East, on average, 33 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every week. Each year there are around 240 deaths from breast cancer in the 34-39 age group.

In 2003 the total number of women dying from breast cancer was 12,614. Just under two per cent were in Kylie's age group.

It's not possible to prevent breast cancer but Kylie has a good chance of bettering the survival odds with her early diagnosis.

Improvements in treatment have led to a 22 per cent fall in breast cancer death rates in the last ten years. Survival has improved overall and, within the 15-39 age group, survival went up from 71 per cent between 1991-95 to 76 per cent between 1996-99.

But the popstar potentially faces months of surgery and treatment as she battles to beat the cancer. An operation to remove the tumour will be the most likely starting point of her cancer journey, as well as helping doctors to decide what course her treatment will take.

Liz Carroll, head of clinical services at the charity Breast Cancer Care, says: ''For someone of Kylie's age, we would say breast cancer was uncommon. There are a whole host of other factors to consider at that age compared to women in their 50s and 60s."

After being diagnosed, surgery to remove the cancerous lump is usually the first treatment for most women. Occasionally, women may be given chemotherapy before surgery to shrink the tumour.

The doctor will usually have decided whether just the lump needs to be removed - a lumpectomy - or the whole breast -- a mastectomy.

After surgery the majority of women will have chemotherapy to ensure none of the cancer has spread in the breast or to other parts of the body. Carroll says that, for young women, doctors would almost always recommend chemotherapy as a precaution.

But chemotherapy can affect fertility, another factor for women who have been diagnosed at a young age to consider. This side effect may come as a further blow to Kylie, whose desire to start a family has been well documented.

Kylie's Showgirl tour had already taken her on a whirlwind tour of the UK and Europe before her gruelling schedule stopped following the shock diagnosis.

The star apologised to her Australian fans for disappointing them, adding: ''Hopefully, all will work out fine and I'll be back with you all again soon.''

In the North-East there were messages of encouragement for Kylie. Cancer survivor Jacqui Herlingshaw says the best way for her to beat breast cancer is to be positive and believe she will pull through.

Cancer has hit the Teesside mother-of-four's family four times, twice affecting her, attacking her brother and causing her mother's death.

Jacqui, 45, first developed breast cancer in 1988 when she was just 28. One morning she rolled over in bed and found a tennis-ball sized lump. Tests showed that the lump was malignant and, after surgery and chemotherapy, she was given the all-clear.

Ten years later she discovered another lump, this time under her arm and on the opposite side of her body, and treatment began again.

This time Jacqui needed radical surgery as well as chemotherapy. But her fighting spirit and refusal to give in to her illness pulled her through.

"I really believe in the power of your inner strength. When I came out of the mastectomy I didn't have any pain, I didn't even have a single paracetamol. One of the consultants was so amazed by my attitude that he came up afterwards and shook my hand," recalls Jacqui.

The South Bank mum's message to superstar Kylie is to think positive. "If she thinks about all the people around her who love her and just thinks about getting better, I think she really will. There is nothing worse than sitting back and letting it take control. She has got too much in her life to do. She is too young, she is not finished yet. She has to keep going."

Mary Lee, a mother-of-two from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, is another breast cancer survivor. Like Jacqui, she has faced up to the challenge and won through not once, but twice.

"When it came back I felt like somebody had kicked me in the stomach with a size ten boot. I thought I have got through this once, I can do it again," says Mary.

Since then she has devoted much of her life to raising cash for the charity she founded, A Celebration Of Life After Cancer. The annual fashion shows she has organised for ex-cancer patients have helped to raise more than £250,000.

Patricia Durning, consultant breast surgeon at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, sees around 100 patients with suspected breast cancer every week. Usually, around four or five of those are told they have cancer.

Miss Durning says there has been a dramatic improvement in the outlook for women diagnosed with breast cancer because of new treatments. Each patient is individually assessed and can receive chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal treatment or some form of surgery.

Even if treatment fails to prevent the spread of cancer into other parts of the body, Miss Durning says there are many treatments available now which can prolong life. She urged women to be "vigilant" for any suspicious changes in their breasts.

Professor Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University, who has studied the psychology of fame, says Kylie's celebrity may be a help in beating the cancer.

''Celebrities are humans too and breast cancer will impact in just the same way but the problem with Kylie is she will have to live it through the newspapers," he says.

''But the one unique thing she will receive that most people don't is immense support from the public to help her through.''