My mother died of metastatic colorectal cancer shortly before three P.M. on Christmas Day of 2008. I don't know the exact time of her death because none of us thought to look at a clock for a while after she stopped breathing.

And I'm going to work as hard as I can... for cancer research and hopefully maybe we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I'd like to think I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!

With over 3 million women battling breast cancer today everywhere you turn there is a mother daughter sister or friend who has been affected by breast cancer.

Breast cancer is not just a disease that strikes at women. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as women: how others perceive us how we perceive ourselves how we live work and raise our families-or whether we do these things at all.

I have to admit like so many women I always knew there was a chance. But like so many women I never thought it would be me. I never thought I'd hear those devastating words: 'You have breast cancer.'

If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives including mine.

The Teenage Cancer Trust does incredible work supporting and caring for teenagers and young adults with cancer and it's a cause that is really close to me and my family.

Now I'm fighting cancer everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day and nothing is changed for me.

Cancer victims who don't accept their fate who don't learn to live with it will only destroy what little time they have left.

The cancer doesn't bother me. I have great faith that the technology will beat it.

Breast cancer deaths in America have been declining for more than a decade. Much of that success is due to early detection and better treatments for women. I strongly encourage women to get a mammogram.

We're going to raise a lot of money for cancer awareness give some to the American Cancer Society and hopefully make a big difference.

I applaud the American Cancer Society for all they do to eradicate smoking. Their local state and national efforts help to discourage young people from taking up this deadly habit and the resources they provide have helped numerous smokers quit.

I don't think makeup is rocket science or a cure for cancer.

If you have a friend or family member with breast cancer try not to look at her with 'sad eyes.' Treat her like you always did just show a little extra love.

I have a new found respect for women who have been through breast cancer and this surgery.

But when I first got cancer after the initial shock and the fear and paranoia and crying and all that goes with cancer - that word means to most people ultimate death - I decided to see what I could do to take that negative and use it in a positive way.

Poetry can't cure cancer but it can save your life until you die.

I'm a Cancerian the typical crab with the tough outer shell and the soft bit in the middle. I don't think I'll ever come to terms with people being unnecessarily nasty but I can take it if someone doesn't like my music - I'm not everyone's cup of tea.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 13 and it was something we weren't really aware of as a family.

Cancer has been unfortunately in my life. My mom's best friend is kicking ass in her battle with breast cancer. Both of my grandmas had cancer. I recently lost a friend to cancer.

My mom died of cancer when I was really young. I'm not someone who tries to work out their own stuff with a role but I think that happened despite my best efforts to keep myself separate from it.

My mom she's a breast cancer survivor and because of that I had started getting mammograms once a year starting at age 30.

My mom was truly an iconic figure a great journalist and a pioneering woman who died at 54 of cancer without ever having revealed to viewers that she was ill.