Stand Up To Cancer

Kathryn Joosten

Kathryn Joosten, two-time Emmy winner for her role on "Desperate Housewives," recently revealed that she is facing lung cancer a second time, after triumphing over the disease in 2001. Joosten, who quit smoking the day she was diagnosed for the first time, hopes to raise awareness of the disease and erase some of its stigma. "The first thing everyone says is, 'Did you smoke?' Yeah, I smoked," she says. "I got addicted because the tobacco companies add additives to their tobacco to make it more addictive. I'm damned mad at all of them. But that stigma has to go away. No one deserves lung cancer."
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/14/kathryn.joosten.cancer/

Cindy Castner

In a blog for readingeagle.com, breast cancer survivor Cindy Castner writes about her experiences facing down the disease twice. She documents honestly the feelings she experiences while undergoing what so many women before her have, writing, "One good day, one bad day. The day of surgery draws nearer and it gets more real. Today I spent wonderful, precious time with my granddaughter. I hold her close and look into her beautiful face. I wish and I hope and I pray that I get to see her grow up. I think about how hard this is to believe. Is this really happening?"
http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=157730

Nicole Rowe

Rowe, 40, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and learned she would need to undergo a double mastectomy. Her response? A trip to Atlantic City to enter a women's poker tournament. During the succession of card games, Rowe encouraged other female participants to get sonograms alongside their yearly mammograms. In the end, she took home the second-place prize of $11,000. "The whole reason was to keep my mind off of reality, which was cancer," Rowe said. "There was a buzz in the casino . . . I had strangers coming up to me, hugging me, telling me I was going to be all right."
http://news.aol.com/article/cancer-patient-nicole-rowe-finds/671972

Brian Moran

This article out of Westmont, Illinois looks at the life of Brian Moran, who, after being diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 17, decided to dedicate his life to cancer treatment. Now, as medical director of the Chicago Prostate Center, Moran helps men every day toward earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer. "Over the last few years, we are seeing a lot more men coming in for the testing now than they were a few years ago, and coming in earlier for it," Moran notes in the piece. "A lot of is that their wives and girlfriends are encouraging them to get tested."
http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/westmont/newsnow/x2023997669/Cancer-survivor-dedicates-life-to-detection

As always, we invite you to share your stories with us in the comments below.