Christina Applegate Recalls Breast Cancer Diagnosis: "There's Such a Sense of Loneliness"

Married With Children actress opens up about battling the disease

Christina Applegate is paying it forward.

The former Married With Children star says she's "always on the phone" these days talking to fellow breast cancer patients and survivors.

"I always get really nervous right before I get on the phone, because I think that this person might need to hear something different than the girl I talked to two weeks ago," Applegate says. "But the one thing that helped me was, "I'm here for you," so that you never feel alone and I think when you get diagnosed with cancer there's such a sense of loneliness, but we need to know as people going through this is that you're not alone."

She made the comments during an interview posted exclusively at E! Online that took place while shooting her new PSA with Stand Up To Cancer and Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

The print PSA, which features Applegate, a fellow survivor, an oncologist and several other people, promotes the Show That You Care campaign about the importance of supporting someone battling cancer.

Applegate says her "village" included three women—"my three survivor friends"—who she met through her physicians.

"Our doctors understood that we as cancer survivors or patients are the ones that really understand one another on a deep cellular level," she said, choking back tears. "I had these three strangers in my life who I called up at anytime of the night and they would be there for me and answer any questions that I have…I still talk to them to this day."

Applegate was 36 years old in 2008 when she beat the disease by having a double mastectomy.

"Not talking about cancer every time they saw me was nice sometimes," she said. "You wanted to be reminded that you're much more than that in life, and you really are."

Check out the complete interview in the video below.