Rita Wilson is "thankful for every single day" after beating breast cancer.

Rita Wilson

Rita Wilson

Last year the 59-year-old actress underwent a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery after her treatment and is now cancer free.

Speaking at Stand Up to Cancer's telecast on Friday (09.09.16), Rita told Entertainment Tonight: "I want to say, first of all, that I'm thankful for every single day. It's encouraging. For me, it's all about awareness and about raising money. I had incredible doctors. I was initially misdiagnosed and I got a second opinion on my pathology [which] showed that I did have cancer. So with that very, very early diagnosis I was able to take care of it and get it all done."

Rita's husband Tom Hanks, 60, added: "No one should go through this alone. That not only goes for the person who is carrying it and in bed for a very long time, but there's also the people who love them.

"Stand Up to Cancer will step up, stand up for you. All you have to do is make a call, get involved. You will not be alone in what could be some of the darkest days of your year."

Tom previously revealed that life stopped when Rita was diagnosed.

He said: "What has been so amazing about it is how powerfully it plays out in a relatively short period of time.

"We all know by now what hell that sort of health crisis is.

"It just comes along out of the blue and everything else stops because the only thing to do is to drop everything else and pay attention to myriad stuff that needs to be attended to.

"Rita found out in December. That meant Christmas and New Year was a completely different version of how it had been on any year before, and now here we are a year later and she seems to be out of it."