Breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate has launched a campaign to encourage women to undergo early testing for the deadly disease.The Anchorman star insists it was the doctor-ordered MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan that helped her to beat the illness, following her diagnosis last month.And the actress has responded by launching her own initiative to raise funds in an effort to help women at risk of contracting breast cancer.She says, "Besides me being really vigilant about it, (the MRI) is the number one reason that I'm going to live. If this had been caught a year from now, or when I was 40, I probably wouldn't be able to live through this, or I would have to undergo such much more than I have."It's incredibly expensive. So for me, one of the things when this all happened was that I'm putting together a program to pay for MRIs for women who are at high risk - which means women who have had it in their family, or know that they're gene-positive."We're also going to pay for the (genetic) testing, because that's very, very expensive - it's upwards of $2,000 to $3,000... so all of that is coming together right now."Last month, Applegate announced plans to participate in the U.S. TV telethon Stand Up To Cancer on 5 September, joining Meryl Streep, Sally Field, Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson in raising money for cancer research.

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