Actress Lisa Ray said she's found a supportive community among other cancer patients. (Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

Toronto actress Lisa Ray is preparing for a stem cell transplant to treat her rare cancer.

The star of Water and Bollywood/Hollywood was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in June and began chemotherapy in July.

Ray says she'll go into a Toronto hospital next week to start a procedure that involves releasing her own stem cells back into her blood. She says that will take about two weeks and act as a "reboot" of sorts for her system before any further treatment.

Ray jokes that the whole thing feels "very sci-fi" to her.

The film star, who once modelled in India, spoke Tuesday in an interview at an event for REEL Canada, a program that brings Canadian movies to schools for free showings.

Ray's film Water, directed by Deepa Mehta, was played for students at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School.

South American break

It was also screened recently at a film festival in Buenos Aires and Ray made the trip to see it. She said she stayed there for 10 days and it was nice to "get a little bit of a break" from her treatment.

"Healing isn't just about the physical procedures," she added. "You need to be emotionally and spiritually and psychologically in the right frame of mind, so I just needed a break and Buenos Aires was the ticket."

Ray's upcoming films include Cooking With Stella and Defendor, which both screened at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

She said she's now put her career on hiatus as she goes through treatment.

A major source of her support system, she said, has been the bonding she's done with other cancer patients at the hospital.

"Like any community, you have your own shorthand, so you understand what individually you're going through, which makes things a lot easier," she said.

"You're just more aware of time and less aware of the pretensions that life imposes on you. So my cancer club has been really awesome."