They might not fit in the cliched beauty standards set for women but they are brimming with confidence. Breast cancer survivors have mastered the art of living beyond the body and want doctors and people at large to be compassionate to those battling the deadly disease. Read the rest of this entry »

As an accomplished and active musician, accounting lecturer, student adviser, wife and mother of two young boys, Cynthia Turner didn’t really have time to write a book.But after surviving breast cancer, the 39-year-old Champaign woman said she had a promise to keep.

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Pop star

Australian pop superstar and actress Kylie Minogue was diagnosed in May 2005 with early-stage breast cancer. On tour at the time, she stopped performing in order to undergo chemo and radiation. She will recommence her tour in November 2006 in Sydney, Australia, in what is expected to be a very emotional performance for the singer; it will be her first time back on stage since her diagnosis. Before becoming a best-selling pop singer, Minogue was famous in Australia and the U.K. for her role on the Australian soap opera Neighbours.

Singer-songwriter

The 44-year-old Missouri-born singer-songwriter was diagnosed in February 2006. A routine mammogram showed calcifications in both breasts and was followed by minimally invasive surgery and then radiation therapy. The star made her diagnosis public three weeks after splitting with Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France cycling champion and testicular cancer survivor.

Jaclyn Smith, one of the original stars of Charlie’s Angels, speaks out about Farrah Fawcett’s second round of cancer. Smith told Entertainment Tonight, “She’s gonna get through it. She’s getting well right now.”

Smith is a cancer survivor herself and reflected on the fact that four of the stars of the show have had or currently have cancer including Kate Jackson, who had breast cancer twice and John Forsythe, who had colon cancer in 2006. “I don’t know; were we drinking something in the water on that set?” she jokes.

Smith is the spokesperson for a new program, Strength in Knowing: The Facts and Fiction of Breast Cancer Risk. The program is a partnership between the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, the National Breast Cancer Organization and Eli Lilly and Company.

Robin Roberts is recovering nicely from her breast cancer surgery last Friday. She says she feels quite sore but believes that much of her success came from the many thoughts and prayers from fans everywhere.

The Good Morning America host recently announced her breast cancer on the air after discovering a lump in her breast last month. She hoped that by going public with her diagnosis more women would be inspired to perform monthly self check on themselves.

Roberts is currently at home with her family while she recovers from her surgery. She will soon receive test results that will determine the rest of her treatment, but she remains hopeful and optimistic that she will soon be back at work in America’s living rooms.