There's a balance in my life, there's reality and there's the part that looks really glamorous, but we're all just people in the end.

A lot of songs are inspiration and help people through pain, grief and loss.

There's a kind of a line between music and math, so I guess I got the music gene, thank goodness. But my mother wasn't too thrilled. She wanted me to go to university and get a degree or do something, and my father, he liked opera so he wasn't too thrilled either, because he wanted me to be an opera singer and I didn't have - as he said, I don't really have the strength to do that.

Early detection is key," she said. "And if I hadn't found my lump early, I don't know what would have been. I am still here and I want to encourage women to do that on a regular basis.

A few years ago I appeared on GLEE and, Jane Lynch and I did a remake of the song that was very popular - someone told me it was in the Top 100 when it was released. First, walking on the set of GLEE the day we filmed it was surreal as they had recreated the entire original set from the music video. It was bizarre - but fun.

We wake up and are grateful for the day. Not taking away from the pain, because the pain will be there. But you live on.

I love that quiet time when nobody's up and the animals are all happy to see me.