Note: The contents of this blog are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice or substitute for professional care. For medical emergencies, dial 911!
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to news reports. However, the 73-year-old, who is leading the investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball players, is expected to make a full recovery, since the cancer is small, localized and was caught early enough.
Prostate cancer is a serious health concern among men over 60, but with regular screenings, prognosis is often good for those diagnosed with it.
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.
ABC's Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts is at home resting after a successful surgery for breast cancer. Pathology reports will take some time to pocess, but when more information is available, the public will be updated, says a Good Morning America spokesperson.
Roberts, 46, told her story recently in an e-mail.
I never thought I'd be writing this. ... I have breast cancer," writes Roberts.
ABCs Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts has heart. You can read all about it in her article titled A Heart in the Right Place in the July 2007 issue of Ladies' Home Journal -- and her book From the Heart. She writes about her job, about how she was never the most brilliant person to work alongside Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer but how she tends to put herself in the position for things to happen.
"Often, the person who catches the break is the one standing there with her arms outstretched at the right moment," she says. There she was, arms outstretched. And here she is, high atop her career ladder.
Roberts also writes about her strong military family, her athletic nature -- she played basketball in high school and college -- and about facing her fears.
Robin Roberts of Good Morning America has shared some deeply personal news with readers and viewers alike: she has cancer. While preparing for a tribute show for her colleague and friend, Joel Seigel, the hostess discovered she had a lump in her breast.
After visiting her doctor and getting a biopsy, her worst fear was confirmed. She is in the early stages of breast cancer. Her immediate thoughts were, "This can't be. I am a young, healthy woman."
Roberts is tackling the issue head on. By sharing her story with the public, she is setting a stellar example of facing her fears head on. She will soon be undergoing surgery and follow up treatments and her prognosis is very good. To send Roberts your support, click here.
I was privileged to be able to interview Tom Batiuk himself, the creator of Funky Winkerbean, both about his own experiences with cancer and also his strip. I have received many many comments about the post I did regarding Lisa's cancer story in Funky Winkerbean, and I have addressed the concerns of the commenters to Mr. Batiuk, and he has responded for us here.
Jen: Obviously, you are a cancer survivor. Did you decide to have one of your characters have cancer largely to explore you own experiences further, to raise awareness about the experience of cancer, or did Lisa's cancer occur more organically? Or is there something else?
Tom Batiuk: There are so many conscious and unconscious elements in the creative process that sometimes it's impossible to untangle them all. My own experience showed me that there was still much more to be examined regarding this subject. This time when I reached inside, I was able to draw from the pieces of me that felt that scared, that angry and that powerless. The insights were deeper and more hard won. I also realized that revisiting Lisa's Story would push my characters to new extremes and reveal what kind of character my characters really had.
June passed away in April, she was 82. She was one of Canada's most celebrated authors and social advocates. She helped the homeless, dealt with issues of racism and injustice. She did much volunteer work.
In 2004, June was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and refused to undergo treatments.
I came across a last interview with her that I thought was very moving. She talks about her life, her marriage, and the fact that her cancer is terminal.
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.
Pavarotti underwent surgery in 2006 to remove a cancerous mass.
Recently, an Italian magazine quoted one of Pavarotti's daughters, Guiliana, as saying her father "knows he will die soon." She insists that her words were taken out of context. Pavarotti apparently took the mixup in stride and laughed about it.
According to Corriere della Sera newspaper, Pavarotti responded further, "You want to hear from me -- whether I'm dead? I'm getting better, I'm on the mend."
Best wishes to Pavarotti and his family as he continues to live and to create, in spite of pancreatic cancer.
The influential leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, has recently been diagnosed with cancer of the large intestine and liver, and is in hospital in Athens receiving treatment. The cancers in his body do not appear to be related, meaning that one has not spread to the other.
In a country where 97% of the population follows the Greek Orthodox religion, this has come as a major blow, and an outpouring of sympathy has occurred, both from followers and opponents. Christodoulos has been the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church since 1998.
Most people in Canada have heard of Belinda Stronach, the young, pretty female politician who rose to fame and famously switched from one opposing political party to the other at the height of her career (getting caught up in a tabloid frenzy over her love life along the way), only to quit politics altogether in April. Where I'm from--a notoriously conservative area--there's a lot of anger towards her, though that has been overshadowed by the revelation this week that she's been privately battling breast cancer for the past few months.
Stronach is battling DCIS -- ductal carcinoma in situ -- which is one of the more treatable forms of breast cancer, and she's had a mastectomy and breast reconstruction since her diagnosis in April.
Love her or hate her, I wish her the best in her fight with the big C. What about you?
Ed Friendly, television producer and thoroughbred horse owner, helped create the hits Little House on the Prairie and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In has died from cancer.
The show Laugh-In, that he co-created, won several Emmys. Ed served as an infantry captain in World War II. His jobs included advertising, radio and later television director, director of sales for ABC, contract producer at CBS and he eventually became NBC's vice president of special programs. Looks like he had all the major networks covered!
Friendly is survived by his second wife, a daughter, son, and three grandchildren.
In November, we told you about Leroy Sievers and how his sense of hope was restored after the tumors in his lungs shrunk. His cancer went in to hiding for a while, only to re-emerge with a vengence. He's got tumors on his spine and his ribs, plus remnants of the tumors on his lungs to boot. He's been through it all before but he's not taking it well this time, because he finally felt like he was starting to live a normal life again.
He's been brought back to reality in a way that people who've never had cancer can't really fathom. To look death in the eye and still carry on is something I can't comprehend but nonetheless, I feel shaken and sorry for what he has to endure, and will say a silent prayer that he can beat this beast once again.
It's pretty difficult to be part of the blogging world and not keep up Dooce, one of the Intenet's biggest blogebrities. So maybe you know this already but she's just been diagnosed with skin cancer -- again. Her struggle with cancer, like the rest of her life over the past few years, was documented on her ever-popular blog and I imagine will continue to be and she tackles the issue again.
A couple of days ago, she wrote this post which, in the candid style that characterizes her writing, urges people to cover up, just as she did during he first battle with cancer. Whether you know her or not, it's a wake-up call for people like myself who are ignorantly proud of our tanned post-vacation bodies. Every bit of colour you get from the sun is evidence of sun damage to your skin, and you need to take care of it. Skin cancer should not be something that healthy women in their 30s get. It's serious business.
Yes, Farrah Fawcett's cancer has returned, just three months after she was given the all-clear following treatment for rectal cancer. But not all of what is appearing in the media is true, and Fawcett now finds herself fighting for both her life and the truth.
The National Enquirer was right about Fawcett's recurrence -- a malignant polyp has been found in the area where her original cancer began. But reporters for this magazine are wrong about their previous take on her illness. Farrah Begs: Let me Die was one previous headline. Such words were never spoken, says Fawcett who is planning to file a lawsuit against the Enquirer for libel, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress regarding numerous fabricated articles about her cancer journey.
This negativity is not only harmful to Fawcett and her family, says her spokesperson. It also jeopardizes Fawcett's chances for a successful recovery, and it's disrespectful to thousands of others surviving cancer.
The Charlie's Angels actress, who is still weighing her treatment options, is prepared to continue the fight she began last Fall. She is not prepared, however, to allow the tabloids to continue to invade her privacy.