You may not have known it but actor Sean Connery has been fearing cancer for the past two decades.

The Scottish Connery, 76, has been seeing doctors for 20 years so growths in his throat could be monitored. Fearing the worst -- cancer -- Connery wanted to stay on top of things.

Results from a recent medical appointment reveal Connery has been given the all-clear, according to his brother Neil who is also plagued by throat polyps.

Some were concerned about Connery's absence from a New York Tartan Week charity show he was scheduled to host two weeks ago. Apparently, there was nothing to worry about. He was just just getting his check-up, and he later assured fans he is in good health.

"It is something which needs to be followed through," says his brother. "You have to have yearly checks and that is why Sean went to the hospital, just to make sure everything was all right."

Connery's father died of throat cancer at age 69. Connery himself was rushed home from filming in Africa in 1993 due to throat problems. He later received radiotherapy treatment.

I was busy during my treatment for breast cancer -- really busy. My two little boys kept me in an always-moving, rarely-resting state and while I sometimes felt desperate for a little down time, I am mostly thankful for the crazy pace that kept me focused, kept me occupied, kept me distracted. Staying busy helped pass the time during a phase of my life when moments could crawl at a snail's pace.

According to the Sun newspaper, Kylie Minogue searched for something to keep her occupied during her own breast cancer treatment. What she found -- writing -- has turned her into an author. Minogue's new children's book -- Kylie: The Showgirl Princess -- which she created with her partner Olivier Martinez, kept her mind off her treatments and on the future. And the future she set her sights on during treatment has almost arrived as Minogue's book is set for release this week. Her book, that includes artwork sent to her after her diagnosis from children all over the world, will be on shelves in London today.

10.18.2006: We are deeply saddened that Miriam Engelberg has lost her battle with breast cancer.

Our favorite cartoonist, Miriam Engelberg, who blogs Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person, and publishes the weekly Cartoon of the Week, titles her latest post Bad News. The lack of balance she has been experiencing has been confirmed to be due to a brain tumor, and she will be entering hospice home care.

Miriam Engelberg was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 43 and decided to chronicle her breast cancer journey in a series of comic strips that have now been collected in the book, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics. Engelberg, mother of a then four-year-old, used cartooning as a way to cope with the shock of diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, support groups, and a second cancer diagnosis.

She has made arrangements with her web designer to see that her cartoons still appear each week. Engelberg warns they might be in black and white. Normally she colors them in on her computer. Here is her latest cartoon.

Cancer just sucks.

In a cancer survivor's life, there are no simple aches and pains. A headache is a potential brain tumor -- sore joints bone cancer -- stomach ache liver cancer. These dramatic leaps to immediate and certain dire conclusion are not the workings of a rational mind. Cancer tends to leave this sticky free-floating inner residue of terror behind.

Trying to talk yourself down from the internal tree of irrationality is a process each cancer survivor must do time and time again.

Only Miriam Engelberg, author of book and blog Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, could take this affliction of cancer-altered reasoning and make it as funny as she does with all things cancer-related. While Miriam was away on vacation she got an attack of gas. Her new Cartoon of the Week tells the cartoonist's pen-and-ink tale.

She just makes me feel better about being me in sharing the who of who she is.

With the sale of a designer logo t-shirt, Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, launched in the UK by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, is celebrating its tenth year as the UK's leading fashion charity breast cancer campaign. The fundraiser began after Ralph Lauren's friend, fashion editor of the Washington Post, Nina Hyde, died from breast cancer. While Ms. Hyde was still battling cancer, she asked Lauren to promise he would do something to raise awareness for breast cancer. Fashion Targets Breast Cancer and the designer logo t-shirt is his promise fulfilled.

Fashion Targets Breast Cancer is a worldwide campaign with celebrity spokespersons such as Saffron Aldridge, Yasmin Le Bon, Gisele Bundchen, Helena Christensen, Jodie Kidd, Elle Macpherson, Jade Jagger, Lily Cole, Eva Herzigova, Claudia Schiffer, Jasmine Guiness, Yasmin Le Bon, Laura Bailey, Erin O'Connor and Jerry Hall.

To support breast cancer charity, you can purchase a Fashion Targets Breast Cancer designer t-shirt here. In addition, by submitting a photo of you and your best dressed friends to the 10 best dressed gallery you are entered in a contest to win tickets to the London Fashion Week this coming September.

Women and girls On the Move Across the Nation is a virtual race where women participate by following routes across the country without leaving their hometowns. The WOMAN Challenge event, which begins May 14 and ends July 8, is sponsored by the Office on Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of National Women's Health Week challenging women and girls to become more physically active.

You register online here, choose a route, wear a pedometer, submit your pedometer reading at the end of each day at the WOMAN Challenge website and see the progress you are making in completing the route. You will receive updates on your progress weekly, as well as motivational emails and valuable health information. They even provide a conversion chart for some activities that are difficult to measure using a pedometer such as riding a bike, gardening or water activities. Did you know that each minute of bike riding is equal to 148 steps -- or -- that each minute of gardening is equal to 73 steps?

All women and girls are welcome to participate, including wheelchair bound women. They have armband pedometers -- so, no excuses. Not sure how to increase the amount of steps you take each day? They offer some suggestions to increase your daily physical activity. Here are a few ideas:

• Park your car in a parking space farther from your destination than you normally would.
• Take your children, dogs, etc. outdoors to play or for a long walk.
• Do some yard work or housecleaning.
• Bike, walk, or wheel to work, to run errands, or to visit friends.
• Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator.

Let's get moving! It will be fun. See you at the race. Physical activity and exercise are cancer prevention.

It's Mother's Day! and the first day of the 7th annual National Women's Health Week. When you wish your mother a Happy Mother's Day, and you give her a hug, and a gift, and say "I love you" -- tell her thank you for taking care of me -- now please take care of you.

"One of the best gifts you can give your mother or yourself is to schedule a check-up visit with a health care provider," said Dr. Wanda Jones, Director of HHS Office on Women's Health. The goal of National Women's Health Week is to encourage women to take simple steps for a longer, healthier, and happier life.

As part of National Women's Health Week is the National Women's Check-up Day on May 15, where women across the country will attend over 1,000 events focusing on women's health. Getting annual screenings for breast, cervical and ovarian cancer are essential to finding cancer in the earliest stages and critical to cancer survival. So today, tell your mother that you can't imagine life without her, and ask her to schedule a visit to the doctor for simple tests that will help her live long and healthy. Check out the women's health information, resources and event calendar provided by the organizers of National Women's Health Week.

In 1995, Sam Donaldson was diagnosed with melanoma when a tumor was discovered in a lymph node in his groin. Donaldson blogged during last year's Blog for Hope event, where celebrities and public figures shared insights and personal stories of how cancer has affected their lives. Donaldson, a veteran investigative journalist, currently appears on the Sunday morning television talk show, This Week with David Brinkley. Donaldson blogged about joining the cancer club. As he pointed out, no one volunteers to join the cancer club but you are automatically enrolled if you are diagnosed with cancer. Once a member, there is important work to be done by the members.

"We work to obtain more money for research into the causes, prevention and cures for cancer and for the alleviation of suffering from cancer. But there is something else that those of us in the club can do." It is perhaps the most important task of being a member of the cancer club. Donaldson explains it by sharing his personal experience. Donaldson, who reports news, became news with his cancer diagnosis. Shortly after, a senator he did not know very well, called and said to Donaldson, "I read that you have melanoma. Let me tell you, six years ago I had a number of melanoma lesions removed and I'm just fine today. You will be too."

Donaldson said that was one of the most important telephone calls he ever received -- one he has never forgotten. When I was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery, a nurse came into my room and shared her seven-year cancer survivorship story. She was there to let me know there was hope -- that I would be fine. It was the turning point in my recovery, and it is the moment I will never forget. As cancer survivors, we have important work to do. Reaching out to the newly-diagnosed is one of the most important tasks because it brings hope. Hope can be the most powerful healing tool of all.

Louis Rukeyser, host of the television program Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser, passed away yesterday after a long struggle with multiple myeloma, a rare bone marrow cancer. A financial journalist known for his dry wit and common sense jargon-less approach to financial matters, he gained an enormous following of loyal fans over the years. Rukeyser demystified the economic and financial world for millions as a television show host, columnist and author. PEOPLE described him as the only sex symbol of the dismal science of his field. Louis Rukeyser died peacefully at home in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was 73.