Great Gatsby star Kate Mulvany reveals a doctor told her "Don't do it, don't even try" for children after cancer caused by her father's exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War

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Great Gatsby star Kate Mulvany has revealed her experiences after she recovered from childhood cancer.

The 41-year-old actress from Geraldton, Western Australia, has endured chronic pain for almost 30 years, as her body tried to recover from excessive radiation treatment for renal cancer. 

The busy playwright was aged three when she was diagnosed with the cancer, which was later connected to her father Danny's exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.

Speaking about her decades of physical suffering, Mulvany explained she was never angry with her body but rather the systems that made her body that way.

'I'm angry that I have a cancer that came from the spraying of dioxin in South-East Asia in a war six years before I was even born,' she told The Weekend Australian.

Mulvany was diagnosed with renal cancer at age three, which was connected to her father's time fighting in the jungle during the Vietnam War.

Mulvany had once dreamed of having six children but was devastatingly advised against it.

The Little Death actress explained her mother had always told her she probably wouldn't be able to be able to have children, but a doctor's diagnosis tipped her over the edge.

'When a doctor definitely said to me, ''Don't do it, don't even try'' I was furious,' she recalled.

'That was the first time I'd really felt bitter fury about who the f*** had made that choice about my body. Why would my body always have to deal with this?'

Mulvany, who has written 25 plays, said her legacy would be left through them. 

Her father, who suffered from PTSD, died in 2017 following a battle with with oesophageal cancer.

Mulvany described him as a 'superhero' who held a lot of guilt, heartbreak and trauma about his legacy of dioxin.

In the years of battling chronic pain, Mulvany said she felt some relief when she decided to label her condition as a disability. 

The hardworker won't turn down jobs from the pain but admits it's important to be frank when she's having a difficult day, as her body's not always able to cope like an able body.