Sheryl Crow’s perspective on life changed following a successful battle against breast cancer and the star now makes her health a top priority.

News of the disease came as a shock during a routine doctor visit in 2006. Now a proud survivor, the All I Wanna Do hitmaker says she has learned a big lesson about life and her priorities.

She told Parade magazine: “I was the last person who I thought would have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Even though I knew I was going to live, it stopped me in my tracks.

The cancer dictated that I look at my life and redefine how I was living and the way I was putting everyone before me. I was constantly trying to make people happy. There was a really big lesson in that for me.”

Although she is now cancer-free, the star has never brought up the subject around her adopted sons in order to protect them.

She explained: “My kids are six and nine. I have not really spoken to them about mommy having breast cancer. I don’t think they would be able to understand that mommy had a life-threatening disease. I’m a single mom. It could incite some fear.

There will come a day for me to say, ‘There was a time where I was diagnosed with an illness that kills some people, but mine is a story of hope.’

I’m practically a poster child for early detection and there’s a lot of great news in that.”

She is, however, looking forward to revealing her past once they grow older in an effort to shape them into caring, compassionate people.

“I try to raise my boys with a sense of overall gratitude at all times and a respect for the planet and for the people around them. So I want to raise caring, stable, compassionate boys.

There will be a time for learning about mom’s past. I actually remember the day I realised that my parents actually had lives before I was born. I don’t think my kids are at that point yet where they think that there was ever a life before they existed.”