Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

The Bold and the Beautiful’s gorgeous Linsey Godfrey (Caroline) opened up about her real life battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system in a piece with the TCPalm.com, and how through her ordeal she became stronger and how the medical diagnosis and treatment gave her a different perspective on life.  Plus, the talented young actress was frank about the battles she faced in Hollywood post-cancer crisis after recovering in her native home of Tallahassee, Florida to landing another break in Tinseltown.  Here are some excerpts below of Linsey’s story!

“During filming of  the NBC series, Surface, she was fatigued.  When the series wrapped up, Linsey came home to Tallahassee, where the family was living at the time.  After fainting three times in one week, the then 17-year-old was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The diagnosis came just a day after Linsey got her first movie role.  But, instead of filming, Linsey started chemotherapy.

Linsey lost all of her hair during the seven months of treatment. That’s difficult for any 17-year-old girl, but especially for an actress.  Lindsey’s mother shaved her head in support of her daughter.   Linsey worried about what people would think. “They’ll think, ‘Look! There goes a beautiful young lady, with a bald head — but what the hell was her mother thinking?'” said Linsey’s mom to her daughter.

Godfrey returned to Los Angeles a year after she left with her health and some of her hair restored. It was challenging at first, for the short-haired actress to get booked. She refused to wear a wig because it made her feel like she was still sick. Linsey estimates cancer set her career back by two years. Casting directors who were just starting to know her forgot about her after a year away.  “I am so grateful for having cancer,” Linsey said, “It changed my entire life. It gave me a completely different perspective. I am so grateful for things. I understand peoples’ struggles.”

This March, Godrey auditioned for the major contract role of Caroline on The Bold and the Beautiful. When she was hired, she was told her character did not have any tattoos.  Linsey, her two sisters, and her mother had all gotten a survivor ribbon tattooed on the back of their necks in celebration of her recovery. When producers saw the tattoo and learned Linsey’s story, they rewrote the story line and incorporated the tattoo into an episode that aired in April.   The good news: Linsey will have been cancer-free five years in January.”

What do you think of Linsey’s inspiring story?  Like many others before her and after her,  she has survived and become even stronger as a person.  And, what do you think about how the powers-that-be wrote her tatoos into her B&B story, when some  soaps do not like to allow some of their actors to expose them on camera? Let us know!