Elizabeth Hurley has had bad experiences with breast cancer, and wants all women to be aware of the fierce disease and get checked regularly even if it means having to bully them to do so.

“I bully all my friends and families to check their own breasts every month and to have an annual mammogram if over 40,” she admitted to The Times. “I have given mammograms to friends who can’t afford one for their birthdays.”

Hurley has been on a 20-year crusade to help raise breast cancer awareness since her grandmother passed away from the disease in 1992. She partnered with Evelyn Lauder for the Estee Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, and has been working with the company since.

“It wasn’t until I started to learn about breast cancer through Evelyn Lauder that I began to feel so angry that I hadn’t known more at the time, when perhaps I could have helped her,” Hurley said. “We know that if a cancer is found and treated early, there is a 95% chance of recovery. If only my grandmother and countless other scared women could have known this,” she added.

Thank you to @Doccubus_Fever for the collage of pink dresses for @BCAcampaign #BCAstrength @Ann_Caruso pic.twitter.com/AyyRKE3Aid

— Elizabeth Hurley (@ElizabethHurley) October 8, 2014

Hurley blames in part a lack of education on the topic for her grandmother’s death. She said that she was too afraid to speak out when she found a lump in her breast, and information about the disease was very limited at the time. Her grandmother waited so long to tell the doctor, that by the time she did it was too late.

Humbled by the women who shared their stories of fighting breast cancer with us last night @BCAcampaign #BCAstrength pic.twitter.com/ivdqrOqU3S

— Elizabeth Hurley (@ElizabethHurley) October 7, 2014

“My late grandmother hadn’t told anyone about the lump she’d found in her breast for some time as she was frightened,” she explained. “Finally, she plucked up courage to tell her doctor but by this time it had grown significantly and the cancer had spread. She underwent a double mastectomy but it was too late and she died soon after.”