One of the more vocal people for the abatement of cancer in any form has been world record-holder Lance Armstrong. The retired pro bicyclist just keeps on chugging when it comes to appearances and other events that detail people's struggle against cancer in any form.

The amount of money Armstrong has landed for cancer research is pretty staggering, a sign that he is indeed dedicated. For the first time ever, though, he is headed to South Korea to promote the Tour de Korea professional bicycle race.

But, he'll be doing more than that -- he's seeing cancer patients and donating equipment to help raise money for the Korean Make-A-Wish foundation for cancer patients.

Most of us know someone who has or had cancer -- a relative, a friend, a neighbour. Some of us know people who have or had cancer and we don't even know it. And then there are people we don't know but who we know of, people whose stories we know even though we've never met them. This blog lists 10 famous people who've battled cancer and I'll admit that some of these I didn't know. Here they are:

• Bob Marley: The iconic musician died as a result of melanoma
• Kylie Minogue: This starlet was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago but it's in remission now.
• Delta Goodrem: This Aussie popstar was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease when she was 18 and is since in remission

Lance Armstrong, one of the fiercest proponents of cancer research and the all-time leading winner of the Tour de France biking event, will be hosting presidential candidate forums on cancer next month in Iowa.

Armstrong says that he wants the U.S. presidential candidates to "discuss the #1 killer in this country," and if anyone can stir up deep thoughts on the fight against all types of cancer, it would be Armstrong.

This quote says it all: "I think whoever wants to be commander in chief ought to answer the cancer question." That's quite prophetic, and with five acceptances so far from both the Democratic and Republican side, next month's open forum on cancer should prove interesting. I'll be watching, that's for sure.

Have you ever stopped to wonder just how it is that celebrities become associated with a certain cause? I sometimes ponder whether or not it is part of their contract: "must find a cause to endorse one a certain level of fame is achieved." Not every celebrity has a cause or a charity, but it seems there are more famous people with foundations than not.

If you have a charity or a foundation that is in need of a famous name, here is the link for you. This site offers a wide range of celebrity types to levels of fame. the categories vary from reality television personalities to hometown heroes. The fees range from $5,000 to $200,000.

It could be that many famous people are just too far out of the typical fundraiser budget, but the lists make for some interesting reading. It is also good to know that so many people are interested in lending their name to a cause.

On October 23, seven-time Tour de France winner and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, with attend a day-long meeting in Lexington, Kentucky as a member of the President's Cancer Panel to discuss the promotion of healthy lifestyles in reducing cancer risks. The President's Cancer Panel was created by the National Cancer Act over thirty years ago to monitor and evaluate all aspects of the National Cancer Program. The Panel identifies and conducts inquiry into concerns and emerging issues in cancer-related science and cancer care. Members of the Panel include Armstrong; Dr. LaSalle Leffall; Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D.; and Abby B. Sandler, Ph.D.

Dr. LaSalle Leffall is the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery, Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC, and Chairman of the Board of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D., is Professor of Immunology and Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Abby B. Sandler, Ph.D., Chief, Institute Review Office (IRO), National Cancer Institute (NCI), became Executive Secretary of the President's Cancer Panel in January of 2005.

The meeting in Kentucky will focus on recommendations related to tobacco and exposure to indoor smoke. Researchers and experts will attend the meeting to join the discussions.

To learn more, Assessing Progress, Advancing Change 2005-2006 Annual Report President's Cancer Panel is a 133-page report available as a PDF document.

Radio Iowa reports that Lance Armstrong wants to fight the final battles against cancer by forming an army to wage war on cancer. Armstrong is in Iowa this week to participate in RAGBRAI, a cycling tour across the state of Iowa, and while there he is also giving interviews and making speeches about cancer and cancer survivorship.

"What we need is an army. We need an army of people. It starts in Iowa," Lance Armstrong said during an appearance in Newton on Wednesday. "Now's the time to make a difference and knock this thing out forever."

At the heart of the matter is federal funding for cancer research. For the first time in 35 years, the federal budget for cancer research has been cut -- which is essential to cancer research. Without federal funding, the advances made toward a cure for cancer are dramatically slowed. Armstrong is on a mission to ignite the political passions of the voters in this country to become an army against cancer.

"We hear every day how we're in the middle of a war, maybe a war in Iraq. It might be a war on terror. Let me tell you about a war. This is a war that's 35 years old and this is the war that's about time in my opinion that we get done with and that we finish," Armstrong said at a political event in Iowa City two days ago.

CNN is hosting Ask Sheryl Crow, an online form that you use to submit your question directly to the singer, songwriter and breast cancer survivor. Crow was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this spring, and went through cancer treatments immediately after the diagnosis.

As a breast cancer survivor, Crow wants to reach out to others who have questions in regard to cancer and being a cancer survivor.

On Monday, July 31, CNN will publish Crow's responses to the questions sent in online. She is also scheduled to appear on CNN's Larry King Live the same day.

Sheryl Crow is emerging as an active advocate for cancer survivorship. Recently, before she joined the Dave Matthews Band in a concert at Fenway Park, Crow made a surprise visit to Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to visit children with cancer at the Jimmy Fund Clinic.

In addition, Crow sat down for a two-part exclusive interview with ABC's Good Morning America Diane Sawyer, where she opened up about the breakup with Lance Armstrong, her breast cancer diagnosis and her life as a breast cancer survivor. Sheryl Crow is a cancer survivor who is giving back. If you have a question you would like Sheryl Crow to answer, just ask her.

It's about time. More than 50 percent of all cancer patients and survivors and more than 75 percent of those cancer patients in an advanced stage of cancer suffer unrelenting, sometimes debilitating, and always quality of life-limiting chronic pain. For various reasons, cancer patients and survivors are left on their own to find a solution to the pain that never leaves them. I have been fairly vocal about my position regarding chronic pain and the sheer and absolute lack of very many physicians in the medical community willing to do what they have the ability to do, but won't, when it comes to providing pain relief.

There are more issues to being alive than being alive if you cannot enjoy the life you are living because you are in some way profoundly diminished by pain. The American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation have come together to form a coalition to provide funding of a three-year grant that allows the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center Pain & Policy Studies Group to evaluate federal and state laws, regulations and agency guidelines that can impact patient access for effective pain relief. With a keen interest in how well this evolves, I will keep you updated on the progress the group makes in changing the current and sad state of patient care in this country when it comes to pain management. 

To raise awareness of the unique issues facing teens living with cancer, each year the first week of April is designated as National Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week. According to Vital Options, young adults are still aspiring to actualize their goals and dreams when cancer stops them from moving forward. Young adults facing cancer and serious illness often feel isolated as healthy friends are off living their lives. Living with cancer presents challenges to relationships, body image, self esteem, marriage, family, fertility and pregnancy, education, and employment. The threat of early death for young adults is profound, as they were just starting out into a life of their own not yet lived. How do you face the possibility of losing something before you had a chance to call it your own? In addition, many young adults have no health insurance and are often delayed in their diagnosis or not taken seriously as potential cancer patients. Some fast facts about young adults and cancer are:

• More than 65,000 young adults in their 20's and 30's are diagnosed with cancer each year.
• Cancer is the leading disease killer among 20 to 39 year olds.
• Young adults have had less survival improvement than either younger or older cancer patients.
• Progress made in cancer treatment has bypassed young adults
• Young adults have the lowest participation rates in clinical trials.

Vital Options, LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance, Mothers Supporting Daughters with Breast Cancer, Planet Cancer, SAMFund, Jimmy Teens TV, and the Teenage Cancer Trust are some of the organizations and programs designed to meet the special needs of young adults with cancer. If you know a young adult with cancer, take a moment to pass along information on the resources listed here.

Do you need to tell a prospective employer you had cancer? Simply put, if it does not affect your job performance, you are not required to tell a prospective employer about your cancer when applying for employment. At Livestrong's SurvivorCare, some common reasons cancer survivors experience employment discrimination include:

• Employers sometimes have incorrect assumptions about what cancer survivors can or cannot do.
• Survivors sometimes need to leave town for treatment.
• Employers are often uncertain about the time requirements needed for cancer treatment or follow-up appointments.
• Employers sometimes fear their insurance costs will go up.
• Survivors may need to change how they perform their job.
• Employers sometimes incorrectly view cancer as a death sentence and are worried that survivors may not be able to perform their job duties.

Two federal laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, protect cancer survivors from employment discrimination. Livestrong's SurvivorCare offers an excellent overview of the issues of employment for cancer survivors. For detailed information and technical assistance about the Americans with Disabilities Act, please visit the ADA website. Cancer survivors have enough concerns without the additional worry they will be discriminated against, or prevented from, earning a living because of cancer.

Allan Blaustein went from doctor to doctor, being told he was suffering from fatigue or that he had asthma, before they discovered the lemon-sized tumor sitting in the middle of his chest between his heart and lungs. Thymus cancer is rare, no more than 500 cases of it are diagnosed a year. His 4 year-old son named his father's tumor the stinky ball. Now there is a blog and upcoming event by the same name.

Blaustein has finished with surgery and chemotherapy and has made it his mission to raise awareness for thymic cancer. He blogs The Stinky Ball, where he posted last July regarding cancer survivor Lance Armstrong's seventh Tour de France win, "With cancer survivor Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France for the 7th time today, I felt compelled to make a significant guarantee of my own. One day I will once again be able to ride a stationary bike for 20 consecutive minutes on level 1! Whether I feel the wind whipping through my hair while on the stationary bike may be another story." The first annual Stinky Ball will be held on May 4, 2006, a celebration of life with a mandate to play more and work less -- all to benefit thymic cancer research, and to take the stink out of the stinky ball.

Paige Kearin is currently interviewing people who have risen to the top of their professions, asking them to discuss what worked for them and their advice on how to be highly successful, for an upcoming book. Kearin blogs Real People. Really Remarkable Lives, chronicling her own success in securing interviews with America's top achievers. In Unbelievable! My Personal Interview with Lance Armstrong Live for My Book!, she shares her "very magical and he is really cool" experience of interviewing Armstrong, and even gives the blog readers a few insider bits of personal information Armstrong shared with her.

Kearin met up with Armstrong during a speaking engagement he was attending in Canada. She offers a link to the video of his speech. Armstrong is inspirational. He says he does not wish the experience of cancer on anyone, but it changed his life, so much so, he does not celebrate the day of his birth each year, but the date of his cancer survivorship. He feels that is when his life began. Armstrong talks about passion, about the necessity of having passion, in order to survive and succeed in all areas of life. He compares the passion of cancer survivorship to the passion a top athlete has when excelling at his sport. Armstrong carries the message of what it means to live strong.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation works with a primary focus on addressing the special issues long-term cancer survivors face. For years, the medical community did not look very closely into the needs and issues of long-term cancer survivors, because the focus was mainly on treating cancer and initially saving lives. Past that, as a cancer survivor, after treatment ended, you were on your own.

LAF has made great advances for raising public awareness about cancer survivorship, and in developing programs specific to the needs of cancer survivors. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has been invited to join the Lance Armstrong Foundation, LAF, in helping to address the needs of the growing number of cancer survivors in the United States through the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network. With a LAF $1.7 million dollar grant, the center will be able to develop four survivorship initiatives; long-term follow up program for marrow and stem cell transplant patients; the After Cancer Care Ends Survivorship Starts program for childhood cancer survivors; a prostate cancer clinical research program and the Women's Wellness Center for breast and ovarian cancer survivors.

The LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network is an invitation-only collaborative partnership among the LAF, NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and their community affiliates. This news heralds only good things for the future of cancer survivors. Both oragnizations are respected for the excellence of services they provide on behalf of cancer survivors.

Sheryl Crow will resume the summer tour dates put on indefinite hold when she underwent breast cancer surgery last month. Featuring the Grammy nominated album, Wildflower, the tour begins June 12 at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis and ends July 8 with a stop at Boston's Fenway Park, where she opens for the Dave Matthews Band. Country artist Jack Ingram is set to open most of her shows.

Just weeks after breaking off an engagement with Lance Armstrong, Crow announced her breast cancer diagnosis. At the time, she underwent minimally-invasive breast cancer surgery. One week after the operation, Crow appeared at the Power Benefit in Beverly Hills sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue, where she watched as Melissa Etheridge, breast cancer survivor, was honored. Currently, she is undergoing radiation as a preventative breast cancer treatment.

In a letter to her fans, she writes, "I cannot begin to tell you how much your cards, messages, letters, flowers, and prayers have meant to me these last few weeks. Needless to say, this has been a really challenging time for me and as I have always said, I have the greatest, most generous fans in the world."

Concert dates can be found on Sheryl Crow's website. They include shows in the Midwest, South, Texas, Boston and Canada.

I think Will Reeve has been on the hearts and minds of all parents as he suffers the loss of his mother, Dana Reeve. As parents, it is instinctual to want to protect children. But no one can give back what was taken from Will, or protect him from the pain. It is comforting to know he is surrounded by an abundance of love and support.

Thursday evening, Inside Edition reported Lance Armstrong spent Wednesday with 13-year-old Will Reeve, less than two days after his mother, Dana Reeve, died of lung cancer. “I would say that his spirits were pretty good considering that, in the last 18 months, he’s lost his father, his mother and his grandmother,” stated Armstrong during the television interview. “In situations like this, all you can do is say, ‘Hey buddy, I’m here if you want to go hang out, if you want to play games, whatever you want to do, I’m here.”’

Armstrong said he became close to Will as he spent time with Will during the last few months of his mother's life. “I love hanging with him,” Armstrong said. “I never thought I’d say that about a 13-year-old, but he’s a great kid. He’s a big sports fan. He’s an athlete himself. Will is not your normal 13-year-old. He’s a smart, well-adjusted, mature, humble kid.”

Tuesday, Armstrong was a speaker at a motivational conference in Montreal, when he was told of Dana Reeve's death. "Now that Dana Reeve has unfortunately passed away, it brings a whole new level of awareness to the disease and I think Peter Jennings' passing was huge for cancer. We don't ever want to lose anybody, but when Peter Jennings dies of lung cancer, people say, 'oh, my god, what - Peter Jennings died?'" Armstrong said.

Armstrong feels that high profile survivors and cancer victims both contribute to awareness about the disease. He also said that he hopes high-profile deaths will bring attention to the fact that more needs to be done in the fight against cancer. "It's been a long time since we decided to fight this war and we're not doing enough," Armstrong said.