The survivors

Breast cancer does not discriminate. It can strike the young, old, married, single, women, some men, rich, poor, educated and illiterate. Celebrities too are not immune.

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, dedicated to increasing awareness about the importance of early detection, it's the right time to do a mammogram. Early detection is the key to effective treatment of breast cancer. If something feels wrong, be persistent with your doctor. And, if you are undergoing treatment, keep your humour intact and try to let your life be enriched by the experience.

Celebrate

With all the various charity programmes going on to help fight the battle, donate a few dirhams or volunteer at fund-raising events.

Today we celebrate the stars who inspired us with their journey through cancer and back. But remember you don't have to be a celebrity to be a hero. Your survival is inspiration enough.

The showgirl must go on: Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue rose to fame in the 1980s as an actress in the popular soap opera Neighbours and later launched a pop career, which, has spawned 37 hit singles in the UK.

But in May 2005, Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer, leading her to postpone her Australian tour.
Her cancerous lump was removed at a Melbourne hospital.

Fans of the singer are said to have donated A$8,000 (Dh26,000) to the Kylie Minogue Breast Cancer Fund in its first 24 hours.

And while recuperating in Paris, the singer sent a message of support to cancer sufferers at a charity ball in London. Since her doctor advised her not to attend the Cancer Research UK ball, her sister read out a short statement from the Australian singer. In the statement she said: "I am currently a cancer patient. I aim to be a cancer survivor." Since then, Minogue has helped to raise money for breast cancer causes and recently one of her skimpiest bras was sold at auction for £2,400 (Dh18,000) for Breast Cancer Care.

On her return to Australia for her concert tour, she likened her cancer battle to experiencing a nuclear bomb.
On November 11, 2006, Minogue resumed her Showgirl Homecoming Tour with a performance in Sydney, joking with the crowd that she was, after an 18-month delay, "fashionably late".

It's been a hard fight for Minogue. The 39-year-old singer recently revealed that she had to struggle to regain her body confidence after gruelling chemotherapy left her exhausted and without hair.

But she's in great shape now and her blonde locks are growing back — along with a renewed outlook on life. Minogue said: "When you are stripped of everything and you have to grow your eyelashes back, grow your hair back, it's astonishing. It's hard to express what I've learnt from that, but a deep psychological and emotional shift has obviously taken place."

The Aussie puts her recovery down to her determined spirit — and the sexy photoshoots helped as well.

"I guess I've given myself challenges, like the swimwear campaign for H&M. That's my way of dealing with it."

Her single, 2 Hearts, is out in November and her album X follows soon after.

Looking to the future, Kylie — who split with French actor Olivier Martinez, 41, after four years — said recently that she would love to have children.

She told this month's Glamour magazine: "I want to keep on finding perfect harmony within my life and my work. And a family, that's something I'd love."

Did you know?

Kylie Minogue won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording 2004 for Come Into My World.

Australian film director Baz Luhrmann cast Minogue in Moulin Rouge! where she played the part of Absinthe, the Green Fairy, singing a line from The Sound of Music. Minogue also provided the voice of a young girl named Florence in the animated film The Magic Roundabout, released in 2006.

Minogue has also agreed to perform in the 2008 BRIT Awards with Robbie Williams.

Sheryl Crow: Brave and honest

Sheryl Crow is considered one of the popular artists of today. But last year, shortly after breaking off her engagement to cancer survivor and cycling superstar Lance Armstrong, country-rocker Crow was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer, told People magazine that he was devastated to hear this news. "Once again I'm reminded of just how pervasive this illness is as it has now touched someone I love deeply," he said.

Crow, who underwent radiotherapy and surgery last year, has made a few adjustments since returning to the stage after battling breast cancer. After enduring surgery, Crow, 44, is more appreciative of her blessings, and that includes her life as a performer. "There's been a huge shift in my consciousness about what life holds," Crow said. "I wanted to get back to the things that represent reality to me, and one of those things is definitely playing music and going out and connecting with the fans, who have been so amazingly supportive."

"I feel so much more celebratory about the fact that I get to come out and play music, and I'm enjoying my good health."
Having survived her own bout with breast cancer, this nine-time Grammy winner has become a tireless inspiration for others, raising $250,000 (Dh917,500) for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and moving ahead with a new album and more Grammy nominations.

Crow will now develop an apparel and accessory line that will reflect her lifestyle and commitment to social responsibility.

Melissa Etheridge: Bald and brave

Melissa Etheridge is one of the most recognisable and popular performers in the world. When this Academy Award-winning and two-time Grammy Award-winning rocker came out at the Grammy Awards in 2005 with her beautiful bald head, she won many more fans and became an inspiration to millions of women. That night, Melissa rocked out to Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart and showed the world that being bald due to chemotherapy was nothing to be ashamed of.

Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2004 at the age of 43. She underwent chemotherapy and a lumpectomy and is on the road to recovery. Etheridge, 46, is best known for singing and playing guitar on raw-sounding hits including I'm the Only One, Come to My Window and I Want To Come Over and made her name in the late 1980s and 1990s with gutsy songs about matters of the heart. "People said I was courageous because I went on the Grammys with no hair. For me, it was just the best decision... I didn't see it as an act of courage.

"I was just living my truth. I guess being truthful today passes as courageous," she said.

Since the cancer diagnosis, Melissa has made some major changes in her life. "When I was told I had breast cancer, I began to change from the very second I got the diagnosis," she said. "With cancer, you start looking at your whole life and cutting the dark things out of it. I often say that cancer is a gift in that way."

She has just released her ninth album The Awakening and the songs represent how Melissa's life has changed since her successful battle with cancer in 2004.

"Because I've always been a songwriter who writes very autobiographically and writes (about) what I'm going through, of course the events in my life in the last three years really dictated my music because my perception of life, my focus, all of that changed," she said. And her new attitude has impressed some early reviewers. Rolling Stone magazine said the album has more depth than her previous work and that "her illness means she's earned the right to explore the big picture."
Indeed, Etheridge's legacy goes beyond music.

Awards

Etheridge has won the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance twice in her career, for the songs Ain't It Heavy, in 1992, and Come to My Window, in 1994.

On February 25, 2007, Etheridge received the Academy Award for Best Original Song for I Need to Wake Up, the theme song to the documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Getting physical: Olivia Newton-John

The Grammy-award winning singer-actress is using music to carry out her new mission. Since she recovered from breast cancer in 1992, she is supporting fundraisers for breast cancer research. A research centre in Australia was also named in her honour. Olivia, who was catapulted into superstardom by her role in the movie Grease, said: "Going through to test to see whether it spread was the hardest. I was going to beat this and I was lucky I did."

Newton-John had a modified radical mastectomy and an implant, and then eight months of chemotherapy.

That experience was the inspiration for her subsequent albums. She discovered that singing was an important part of healing. Her album Gaia, One Woman's Journey, recorded a year after her surgery, is an intensely personal and upbeat album.

Olivia chose to talk about her experience with breast cancer, so that other women in a similar position could see that survival was possible, and early detection was important. She also launched a new line of breast health products and donates a part of the proceeds to help breast cancer survivors.

Healing

"I want to encourage women to find any breast irregularity early," she said.

Cut to 2007 and Newton-John is putting her all into health and healing. She is building a cancer hospital and wellness centre in Melbourne, Australia.

As far as her career goes, she says, "I'm finishing a Christmas CD and the hospital and being here for Chloe," says Olivia, referring to her daughter who went public about her struggle with anorexia in recent months.

LivKit


The Olivia Newton-John LivKit is a self-examination kit for women to make lumps or shadows on their breasts more easily detectable. It's like a magnifying glass with fingers. She said, "My dream is that every woman should receive it as a gift at some point."

Angel ever after: Kate Jackson

In 1976 Kate Jackson debuted in Charlie's Angels with Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett. Each week the show drew an astonishing 23 million viewers — and some 18,000 pieces of fan mail.

But on a fateful morning in January 1987, during her fourth season on the hit TV series Scarecrow and Mrs King, Jackson's life changed. She received a phone call in the morning that informed her that the show's taping had been cancelled. Jackson went back to sleep. When she woke several hours later: "It was out of the blue, but perfectly clear," she said. "I sat up in bed and said, ‘You have to have a mammogram'."

She did, and two days later a biopsy confirmed her fears. A malignant growth was detected on her left breast. Jackson now suspects that her premonition was rooted in warnings from her doctor about the importance of having a mammogram, recommended when a woman reaches 35. Like a lot of women, she had ignored it.

Jackson underwent a lumpectomy and weeks of radiation treatments that she managed to keep secret. "I had to be my own pillar of strength," she told People magazine then.

Jackson again battled breast cancer in 1989. "The range of emotions you go through is amazing. But I really made a conscious decision to be positive.

"I'm never going to have the perfect body. I'm not into facelifts. But I can wear a strapless evening gown, a bustier, or whatever is required for a part." That's the high-spirited Kate Jackson.