Despite her recent breast cancer diagnosis, Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts is already speaking out about the cancer cause. In fact, she just recently spoke to a group of cancer survivors and activists at a fundraiser in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Roberts is also speaking about the relief she feels now that her diagnosis has been made public -- "It was like the weight of the world was lifted," she said.

Talking about cancer invites support. Roberts, 46, got some comforting words of support from Elizabeth Edwards just after her announcement. Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, is also fighting breast cancer.

Good Morning America coanchor Robin Roberts returned to work on Monday, a little more than one week after her breast cancer surgery. Some think her return was a bit hasty. Some think it was the absolute right thing to do. I'm of this camp -- the jump-back-into-life approach. It's exactly what I did after my surgery and throughout every step of my treatment. And while there were surely days I could have cut myself some slack, I tried to keep on my toes. It was the only way I knew how to manage the chaos of cancer.

In the spirit of helping women cope with their breast cancer diagnoses, Roberts' very own doctor offers some insightful words of wisdom. Click here for guidance about returning to work, managing through surgery and radiation, maintaining emotional health, and the importance of mammograms and self-exams.

What is your take on how Roberts is handling cancer and how her doctor is handling the topics that become critical in the fight against this disease?

If you plan to tune in to Good Morning America on Monday, you'll see Robin Roberts looking back at you. The co-anchor, 46, expects to back at work on August 13, just 10 days after surgery for breast cancer.

Roberts, who was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump during a self-exam, is still waiting for the test results that will determine her course of therapy. Right now, though, she feels great and looks forward to returning to work alongside Diane Sawyer.

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.

Writer Jeph Lobe has been working through the stages of grief in the most recent issues of Marvel Comics. You see, Captain America has been gunned down. And his buddies -- Wolverine, the Avengers, Iron Man, and Spider-Man -- are battling with denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. The whole story will be revealed when the latest issue, Fallen Son, hits newsstands July 5th, the day after Independence Day.

Loeb, also an executive producer for NBC's Heroes, chose his storyline to represent current politics.

"Part of it grew out of the fact that we are a country that's at war, we are being perceived differently in the world," he says. "He wears the flag and he is assassinated -- it's impossible not to have it at least be a metaphor for the complications of present day."

Miss Rodeo North Dakota Ashley Andrews is proud to have won the 52nd annual Miss Rodeo America Pagent in Las Vegas on Saturday. Her victory is even sweeter because she is also winning her battle against cancer.

Andrews, 21, has beaten competitors from 28 states in categories such as horsemanship, personality, and appearance.

And she has beaten cancer after months of chemotherapy. Remission began on August 9 when she received a clean bill of health.

Feeling stronger than ever -- both mentally and physically -- Andrews believes everything in life happens for a reason. "Something good always comes from every bad situation," she said. And something good has happened.

As winner of the pageant, Andrews will receive a $10,000 scholarship, western apparel, and other prizes. She also becomes the new ambassador of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and will attend more than 100 rodeos during this year. A junior majoring in public relations and communications at the University of Mary in Bismarck, she will put college on hold during her reign as Miss Rodeo America.

The magazine Beyond: Live and Thrive After Breast Cancer made its public debut on September 19 when it arrived on the shelves of bookstores and grocery stores across the United States. And the magazine -- created to help breast cancer survivors nurture their physical and emotional health -- has caused quite a stir already.

Readers of a previous Cancer Blog post introducing the magazine say they can't get enough it and can't wait for the next issue. Contributing Editor Martha Miller Johnson says it's been a crazy month for the magazine team. She reports that the magazine is selling incredibly well, that she is receiving the most amazing e-mails from a wonderful group of women. The Des Moines Register and Connecticut Post both have done big stories on the magazine and in the midst of the flurry of success, work has already begun on the next and second issue that will hit newsstands on March 20, 2007.

Beyond is published by Meredith Special Interest Media twice per year in Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer editions. Currently, subscriptions are not available, but the magazine is available all across America and can also be purchased on-line.

It's no surprise this magazine has caught the attention of people everywhere. It's a timely, colorful, glossy breast cancer handbook. It's chock full of candid stories, recent research, and helpful hints. It's a breast cancer community that is inspiring, hopeful, and completely comforting.

Actress Mariska Hargitay lost her father on Thursday to multiple myeloma. Mickey Hargitay, the 1955 Mr. Universe, Mr. America, Mr. Olympia, and one-time husband of late sex symbol Jayne Mansfield died at the age of 80 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Born Miklos Hargitay in Hungary, Mickey emigrated to the United States after World War II. Here he entered the world of bodybuilding and then landed a role in Mae West's Las Vegas Revue. Mansfield, who saw the show in 1956, married Hargitay in 1958 -- and the two later had daughter Mariska and two other children. Mansfield and Hargitay divorced in 1964 -- and Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.

Family members shared in a statement to the media, "words cannot express how saddened we are by the loss of Mickey. At the same time, we are so grateful for who he was and is to all of us, and for the love he gave us in our lives. He will continue to be our source of inspiration and strength."

Hargitay, also know for a few Hercules-style movies, is survived by his wife of 38 years, Ellen, a daughter, a stepdaughter, two sons, a brother, a sister, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Preston Barden, the father of nine and grandfather of eight, told his family he will be back home at Christmas.

On June 20th, Barden began his walking odyssey to break the Guinness World Book Record for the fastest time crossing the US on foot for a round trip total of 5,900 miles. While he is doing this, he is asking for donations to benefit the National Children's Cancer Society -- and he hopes to raise $30 million dollars with his effort.

Barden, who began in New York City, said, "If I do the round trip I will be the first person to do the round trip, and then it will also be America's longest walk-a-thon."

Barden, a welder by trade and a martial arts instructor with four black belts, totes a 55-pound backpack with tokens of inspiration from those who have died of cancer. You can watch WGEM's video of the television interview they did with Barden here. For information on how to donate to the National Children's Cancer Society call Barden at 1-888-411-KIDS. For more information about Barden visit World Walkers.

For fitness, the practice of yoga promotes balance, flexibility and strength. America loves yoga, according to a survey conducted by the Yoga Journal. The top four reasons given for the interest in yoga were: flexibility, stress reduction, strength, fitness and conditioning. As yoga grows in popularity, it is also becoming Americanized, and there are a number of hybrid yoga practices springing up like: Acu-yoga, Yogilates, Disco Yoga, Hip-Hop Yoga, Punk Rock Yoga, Aqua Yoga, Doga (with your dog), Yoganetics, Soul FlowYoga, Freestyle Vinyasa Flow, Sonic Yoga, Yogic Arts (yoga combined with martial arts) and Nude Yoga -- which is a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on who you are asking.

Of the survey participants who were asked , these were the top four good/bad statements made to the increasing popularity of yoga in this country:

• "Americans need to recognize that practicing yoga doesn't conflict with mainstream religious values."
• "The commercialization of yoga is a good thing. It attracts many more people to the practice who otherwise wouldn't know about it."
• "Innovation is good for yoga. The many different styles that are evolving make the practice accessible to everyone."
• "Yoga in America is becoming too commercialized."
  

Is yoga the current fitness fad? Maybe. Will it fade in popularity? I suspect it will for those who flitter from one new trend to the next new trend. But, for example, there have been years of research into the potential benefit of yoga in improving the quality of life for cancer patients and survivors, and the National Cancer Institute has recently awarded M. D. Anderson a $2.4 million dollar grant to study the benefits of Tibetan yoga for cancer patients and survivors.

According to M. D. Anderson researchers, cancer and its treatment are associated with considerable distress, impaired quality of life, poor mental health and reduced physical function. For thousands of years, Tibetans have been practicing a form of yoga that might help reduce treatment-related side effects that accumulate over time for cancer patients. As research continues, yoga may become an accepted alternative and complementary therapy incorporated into mainstream medical practice for the treatment of disease and improving health.

Realistically, I am not certain that some of the trendy hybrid forms of yoga will endure over time, but the yoga that has been around for thousands of years is here to stay.

Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher died Saturday of complications from a recent bone marrow transplant. Her health concerns began three years ago when she was diagnosed with polycythemia vera -- a rare disease that causes bone marrow to produce excess blood. Then last winter, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Her subsequent bone marrow transplant on May 16 cleared her system of cancer. But she developed graft-versus-host disease -- where transplanted cells start attacking the digestive system. A fever, a change in her potassium level, and a trip to intensive care prompted her husband to write on his blog Friday of her condition. He reported that if she remained stable, she would return to her previous hospital room and would work on recovering. But sadly, Butcher did not recover.

Butcher dominated the 1,100-mile sled-dog race from Anchorage to Nome in the late 1980s and brought national attention to the grueling competition. She won the 1986 race and became the second female champion -- and then won again in 1987, 1988, and 1990. She finished in the top four through 1993. Butcher also made headlines in 1979 when she helped drive the first sled-dog team to the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley -- the highest peak in North America.

Butcher, who ran her last Iditarod in 1994, grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was married with two daughters -- ages 10 and five. Butcher was 51 years old.

Phil Goddard is blogging Coast to Coast as he walks over 4,000 miles across America in memory of his wife Jayne, who died of cancer in January 2006. He is raising money for the Association for International Cancer Research as he walks. He started in New York on June 25 and has met with sweltering triple-digit heat, shin pain and as he describes them -- people of extraordinary hospitality.

In a solo foot journey that will take him up to nine months to complete, Goddard has made it as far as Pennsylvania. There are no vehicles following him and no official support awaiting him on the road ahead. Goddard goes it alone.

According to his sister Jacqui Goddard, "This grueling odyssey is his idea of a healing experience, an off-beat form of bereavement therapy by which he can make life without Jayne meaningful, rather than filling his days with the pain of her loss. It will also raise more than £10,000 in sponsorship for the Association for International Cancer Research."

Goodard believes that if it had been him who died, his wife Jayne would have found a way to turn it into something positive too. Jayne was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer but it wasn't discovered in time to save her. Jayne, who used her maiden name Comins, was a speech therapist and psychotherapist, and held the professional status as a leading expert on the human voice, writing books and articles, making regular TV and radio appearances and lecturing throughout Britain.

Join Goddard on his walk across America as he blogs Coast to Coast.

In a 45-day bike tour, and over halfway through, six international college students have been cycling across America to raise money for cancer research and blogging the daily journey at Cross Country for Cancer. There are three reasons I have been following the blog posts: one, these young men are spectacular for the undertaking of raising money for cancer research by pedaling coast-to-coast; two, some of the posts and photos with captions are Monty Python-esque hilarious (which I compared them to in the first post I blogged about them); and three, it has been interesting to see this country at pavement level through the eyes of a group not normally residents.

They have blogged gorgeous scenery seen and generous people met. They have also discovered where the Grinch works his summer job. In case you don't know, because I didn't, the Grinch is running the tram somewhere near Cotopaxi, Colorado.

Cancer ... it's kind of a big deal. That is the tagline for the Cross Country for Cancer blog. In a benefit to raise awareness and funds for cancer research at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of Johns Hopkins University and for the American Cancer Society, six international college students are spending 45 days of summer cycling across America. The Cross Country for Cancer cycling team, who began their 4,000 mile journey in San Francisco, California, 13 days ago, plan to finish in Baltimore, Maryland.

Cross Country for Cancer is blogging the daily challenges and adventures of the cycling journey across America where this group of college students -- John Lian of Amherst; Ezra Pierce of Oxford; Jacob Pierce of UC Santa Barbara; Patrick Garfjeld Roberts of Oxford; Max Capener of Oxford; and David Lauterbach of Wheaton -- basically came up with a big idea and without any self-admittedly realistic sense of what is possible, simply agreed to go for it.