Jack Osbourne, son of rock legend Ozzy and colon cancer survivor Sharon Osbourne, recently stated that he blames his alcohol and drug addiction on his father. During his mother Sharon's diagnosis and treatment for colon cancer, the young Jack used alcohol and the powerfully addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin as a way to cope.

Jack is quoted as saying, "My problems peaked when mom was sick and dad was dealing with his problems the same way as I was, by drinking, so I had no one to turn to. I was just hanging out with my crowd drinking and doing drugs." Jack ended up in an addiction rehab clinic to get clean and sober.

This is no way excuses the badly-decided choices that Jack made when he turned to alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with his feelings, but there is a sharp focus and more than a bit of snarkiness to the news reports concerning Jack's blaming comment that misses a great opportunity in regard to discussing the impact a parent's cancer diagnosis has on children.

As the American Cancer Society (ACS) states, "Families face many complex issues when one of their members has cancer. There will probably be a time during a family's experience with cancer when psychosocial support services will be helpful in meeting the emotional needs of the family. There are teams of experts, each with a different focus, who offer support and are trained in how cancer affects a family." ACS offers a terrific resource for the family with the online publication of Helping Children When A Family Member Has Cancer.

The Family Doctor states, "Every person has a different way of handling news that a loved one has cancer. Many people react with shock, disbelief and even anger when they're first given the news." The Family Doctor's Cancer: Helping Your Family Help You offers advice on different questions a parent might have, such as:

• How will my family react to the news that I have cancer?
• Should I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How do I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How can I help my children cope with their feelings?
  

In 2002, when I drove home after being told I had cancer, I wondered and worried about how I was going to tell my children, how I could avoid the unavoidable shattering of innocence in their world, how to protect them from their own fear and pain? I sat outside in the car, trying to stare through the walls of our home, knowing that in the next five minutes I would be changing our lives forever with the news of my cancer diagnosis. I wanted to freeze time, to save the innocence, to keep the awful news from being true.

In the ACS online resource for families, it states, "Parents can have a powerful effect on how their children react to a crisis in the family. In the beginning this responsibility can feel like a huge weight, but it is possible for family members to learn how to deal with and even grow through the experience of having cancer in the family."

Support services can include individual counseling, family counseling, and support groups. If you do not know where to start, ask your physician or call the local hospital or local ACS office. Someone will be able to help you help your children, and all family members, navigate through the crisis of cancer, so that everyone becomes a survivor of cancer in the best way possible.

Sexy. Seductive. Super-intelligent. All aptly describe Sharon Stone. Another is sportswoman, as Stone is an avid golfer. During a recent interview with Golf for Women, she shared a story about her father, also an avid golfer, surviving esophageal cancer by playing golf.

Given three months to live, her father was able to play through his chemotherapy and radiation treatments because of specially-built clubs designed by the golf equipment company Callaway. A feeding tube inserted after surgery prevented him from being able to bend. Without the new clubs, he would not have been able to continue in a much-loved positive activity.

Around the same time, Rob Lowe's father was being treated for cancer with a new targeted drug therapy, Avastin, and they helped Stone obtain the same drug for her father. She attributes the game of golf and the help of her friend Lowe with saving her father's life.

Twenty-two operations later, when Stone's father had successfully beaten cancer, she called the Callaway company to let them know how much a part she believed the company had in her father's recovery. The woman who took the call began to cry because it was the one year anniversary of her own mother's death from cancer and Stone's call lifted her spirits that something the company had done might have helped someone survive cancer.

For many golfers, golf is more than a sport. "Golf teaches you about life, about humanity, about things that will make you a better person," explains Stone. At the end of the article, Stone offers this advice, "Your life is a book; every page you write, you carry with you. You don't get to tear the pages out and throw them away. So write wisely. It doesn't matter what others write, ever, ever, ever. They don't know you at all. But what you write is indelible." Spirited. Insightful. Centered. All Sharon Stone.

Sharon Shakes It Up, Hollywood's A-list femme fatale has strong opinions about everything--including golf, is the Golf for Women cover story in the January/February 2007 issue. The interview has been published online here.

Rock legend Black Sabbath Ozzy Osbourne spoke about his wife Sharon's colon cancer diagnosis during a recent interview with Hello! magazine, in which he is quoted as saying, "When I found out it was like someone had got a slab of concrete and hit me with a big dose of reality. I thought cancer plus patient equals death. The thought of losing her was more than I could bear."

In 2002, the entire Osbourne family appeared in a MTV reality show The Osbournes. During the taping, Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer. Rather than cancel the show, she agreed to share the experience of chemotherapy and cancer survivorship with the viewers to help raise awareness for cancer.

Osbourne said that while he is always happy for the professional success his wife enjoys with such shows as the U.K. talent show X Factor and The Sharon Osbourne Show, he misses the time away from her.

Ozzy has designed a limited-edition signature series t-shirt for the Hard Rock Cafe, with profits from the sale of the t-shirts to benefit the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program. The cancer charity offers colonoscopies and screenings to people without medical insurance, as well as those with minimal coverage, transportation to chemotherapy for patients and nursing consultation to those in need of assistance with their aftercare.

Now a four-year colon cancer survivor, Sharon's life philosophy is simple: "live everyday to the fullest, and don't save for tomorrow what you can do today." Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are featured on the cover of the February 2007 issue of Hello! magazine.

Photographer Sharon Seligman's images are inspired by her personal journeys. She photographs people and birds and residential communities. She also captures the journeys of women enduring breast cancer. Her work speaks of the human experience. It speaks of her own experience. It speaks volumes.

Bearing Witness: Beyond the Surface of Breast Cancer is one of Seligman's portfolios. It's a photographic trip down memory lane, depicting self-portraits of courageous breast cancer survivors. Seligman tells her own story in words that border the left side of each portrait. Captions to the right of each black and white photograph offer a glimpse into the life of each woman whose being is displayed in raw form, for all to see, for all to contemplate, for all to appreciate.

And then in another portfolio, Seligman offers more photographs, more visions of the breast cancer experience.

Seligman aims to share the physical changes that come from breast cancer, to project the inner truths. Clearly, she is right on target.

In the United States, mammograms are not recommended for women under the age of 40. Other then an annual check-up and a monthly self breast exam, young women with no family history of breast cancer have no medical tools available for preventing and detecting the disease. But no woman is immune to this disease -- and being female is the single most important risk factor for diagnosis. And young women do get breast cancer. I did. And so did Sharon Rutherford, a 36-year-old Ulster woman who was diagnosed in December.

Rutherford is urging health officials to lower the age for screening in Northern Ireland -- where routine breast screening programs are reserved for women between the ages of 50 and 64. Rutherford says this is inadequate as there is an "absolutely chronic" number of younger women suffering from breast cancer.

Although there is a reduced-age screening program that monitors women beginning at age 40, Rutherford would like to see the screening age reduced to 30. Until then, she is educating women about how they can be vigilant about their own care. She urges women to report to doctors anything that just doesn't feel right. And because doctors may excuse symptoms because women are "too young" for breast cancer -- that's what doctors told her -- women must aggressively pursue medical care. Rutherford kept pursuing the thickening she felt in her breast -- and eventually she was referred for screening.

Rutherford has had a partial mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. And she is now active in the Ulster Cancer Foundation's new support group -- specifically for women under the age of 40.

This summer, Dorothy Perkins is introducing a limited edition and exclusive line of fashion tees artistically designed by celebrities Nicole Kidman, Sharon Osbourne, Sienna Miller, Charlotte Church and Denise Van Outen to benefit Breast Cancer Care. The specialty tees, retailing at £15, go on sale Monday July 10th at the Dorothy Perkins website and in their 600 UK stores. £5 of each tee sale will go to Breast Cancer Care. Last year, Dorothy Perkins raised  over £1.3 million, through the pink wristband campaign in support of the breast cancer charity.

Nicole Kidman was only a girl when her mother battled breast cancer. Kidman chose her design because it represents the power and importance of support, comfort and care. Both family members and friends of Sharon Osborne have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she chose her design using the symbol of a cross and heart to represent Hope, Peace and Love. Sienna Miller chose a quote that inspires. Denise Van Outen lost her grandmother to breast cancer last year and chose the rollerskate as her design because it reminds her of her childhood visits with her grandmother.

There are 50,000 tees for sale. I doubt they will last long. If you are interested, visit Breast Cancer Care Dorothy Perkins Little Tees for more information.