After noticing a mole on the back of her leg, actress Michelle Monaghan said she had a personal brush with cancer.

But, after overcoming skin cancer, the 35-year-old has admitted that she is fortunate to be in such good health, which allows her to maintain her Hollywood momentum.

The mother-of-one, who also made a mark in last year’s Source Code as Jake Gyllenhaal’s female protagonist, told the newspaper that her Australian husband, Peter White, had detected an unusual mole.

“A few years ago I had a mole on the back of my calf, and [my husband Peter White] was adamant that I get it checked. In Australia, they’re very aware of skin cancer. I finally went and it was skin cancer. I had quite the chunk taken out of my leg. I’m so grateful he noticed it. He has a keen eye–[I wonder] what other imperfections he’s noticing,” she stated.

Monaghan’s fear of cancer is understandable; the actress – whose film “Machine Gun Preacher” hits theaters Nov. 2 – acknowledged to the magazine that she smoked for ten years.

‘I smoked for almost 10 years. I really regret that,’ she says.

‘Thankfully, I came out on the other side. I hope my lungs are repairing themselves now.’

While her spouse couldn’t undo the harm caused by cigarettes, he can assist in the treatment of other illnesses.

“During ‘that time of the month,’ he knows to bring me a Snickers bar,” the actress explained. “He’s good like that!”

Machine Gun Preacher, her most recent film, is based on the inspiring true tale of Sam Childers, a former drug dealer who undergoes a miraculous turnaround and discovers an unexpected destiny as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children.

Childers, a Pennsylvanian, changes his life after meeting Jesus and gets captivated with the Sudanese child atrocities half a globe away.

He establishes an orphanage that accommodates over 200 children and assists in the fight against the fathers who have abandoned them. His desire for revenge and desire to help the youth comes at the expense of his wife and daughter.