Breast cancer survivor Catherine West was married to her husband, Jason, in a very public ceremony in May. The couple beat out 450 other couples battling in the ESPN Marriage Madness competition and celebrated with sports fans everywhere their beautiful union, inspired not only by their love for one another but also by the one-year anniversary of Catherine's double mastectomy for breast cancer.

What fans didn't know at the time of the wedding was that Catherine knew in her heart something was very wrong. And just after she returned from her Indianapolis 500 honeymoon, Catherine learned her breast cancer had returned.

The 37-year-old from Jupiter, Florida underwent three more surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation and is happy to report her treatment is complete. She is also certain breast cancer came to her life -- twice -- so she could make a difference.

"This happened to me so I could help other people,'" said West, who volunteers her time for the West Palm Beach Race for the Cure, a 5K walk and run sponsored by Susan G. Komen For The Cure.

The world's largest drug maker -- Pfizer Inc. -- announced Monday it will cut 10,000 jobs and close at least five facilities due to fierce competition from generic drug makers. The goal, says Pfizer spokespeople, is to whittle away annual costs by $2 billion by the end of the year -- to combat the prediction that the company will lose 41 percent of its sales to generic drugs between 2010 and 2012.

Pfizer's other obstacles include expiring drug patents -- costing Pfizer about $14 billion in revenues between 2005 and 2007 -- as well as demands for lower prices by insurers and large purchasers, and repeated requests for evidence of products' worth.

The 10,000 layoffs amount to 10 percent of the company's global workforce and will take jobs from 2,200 United States employees. The company will cut 20 percent of its European sales force, will close three research sites in Michigan and two manufacturing plants in New York and Nebraska, and is considering selling a manufacturing site in Germany and closing two research sites in Japan and France. In the midst of all of this, the company will focus its efforts on transforming the way they do business.

"I believe we must transform the way we've done business in the past in order to be more successful in the future," said Jeffrey Kindler, CEO and chairman of Pfizer. " Incremental evolution is not enough. Fundamental change is imperative -- and it must happen now."

Pfizer's Monday announcement is the second declaration of budget cuts. A previous announcement has the company -- the maker of cancer drugs Aromasin, Ellence, Camptosar, and Sutent -- slashing costs by $4 billion a year until 2008.

The most recent season of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge reality show has just ended. Customary after each season finale is a reunion show -- where a sampling of contestants recap their experiences, answer questions, confirm or dispel show rumors, and update viewers on the status of their post-television lives. The winners -- a twosome who took home $250,000 -- sit front and center at the reunion and get to bask in the glory of the physical and mental prowess that allowed them to win the big bucks. Two contestants clearly won -- they have the money to prove it. But another contestant -- who didn't take home a dime -- is the true winner in my book.

Diem Brown, 25, was cast on the MTV challenge show before she knew she had ovarian cancer. But prior to the start of the show, Brown did know of her diagnosis -- and she still decided after just a few treatments to head for Australia where she competed in physical stunts and tough competitions. The producers never knew of Brown's illness and she confided in only two castmates while she battled through fatigue and nausea to complete her own personal survival mission. She succeeded -- and she returned home victorious in her own right. And she has no regrets.

On the reunion show, Brown said the show made her more fierce, that she came out of the experience a stronger person, that she tried her hardest, put everything on the line, and didn't feel sorry for herself. And it put her mindset in a great place prior to returning home for continued treatment.

And now Brown is home. She is receiving treatment. And she is managing her foundation -- Live for the Challenge -- a wedding-type registry
where patients can register for wigs, prescriptions, anything critical to the management of their illness.

Ovarian cancer affects one in 50 women, mostly in a silent fashion -- with no overt symptoms until it's often too late. And there is currently no accurate screening for this life-threatening disease that can have tragic outcomes.

Brown seems to be managing just fine with the cancer she calls "the disease that whispers." She is strong, spunky, enthusiastic and positive about life, about her future. She is clearly a winner.

MTV is currently airing another installment of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge reality show. This season -- called Fresh Meat -- pairs former show contestants with individuals who have never before appeared on any MTV reality show. These new contestants -- the fresh meat -- compete with the veterans in tense and strenuous physical and mental challenges for an array of prizes and for a grand award of $250,000. Winning the money could be life-changing for any one of these participants. But for one woman, it could also be life-saving.

Diem Brown, 25, was cast on the MTV challenge show before hearing her diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She didn't want to regret passing on the opportunity so with two chemotherapy treatments completed and armed with medication to manage nausea and other side effects, she packed her bags and headed for Australia where her days consisted of challenging stunts and tough competition. She survived it all -- although fatigue and pain sometimes slowed her down -- and she is busy surviving ovarian cancer too.

Brown has started a foundation called Live for the Challenge -- kind of like a Make-A-Wish Foundation for patients who are stuggling with medical difficulties. And her own personal wish is that ovarian cancer -- "the disease that whispers" -- would get a megaphone to attract more attention and more research. Because one in 50 women will get ovarian cancer and with no accurate screening for this disease, it leads to tragic outcomes for many women.

It is clear that Brown is one tough contender -- both on TV and in her everyday life. And that makes her a winner no matter what.

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.

I realize that you do the best you can with what you have to work with at the time. However, I am pleased to report, the scorched earth era of a chemotherapy drug designed to kill everything in its path in attempting to wipe out cancer -- might finally be coming to an end.

At present, pharmaceutical companies are carrying out clinical trials on approximately 400 cancer drugs, many with a targeted ability to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells in the process. And that my friends, is progress.

It's about time. Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I had little idea about how generalized cancer treatments were, or how medieval I would come to view them when I discovered what the oncology team had to offer. Frankly, I was disappointed and began to understand the disillusionment that motivated cancer patients to seek alternative therapies. I really expected, living in the 21st century, much more in the way of specialized targeted cancer drugs.

It wasn't the fault of the oncology team -- you really can only work with the tools you are given. With 400 cancer drugs now in clinical trials, I am beginning to get the sense we might be headed in the right direction. To a place I imagined we had already arrived.

Few would disagree that the health care system in this country is breaking down. If you are one of the 45 million without health insurance you already know how difficult it is to get health care, and if you have medical insurance you continue to watch as your insurance premiums and deductibles go up year after year. Medicine has become more about money and less about patient care. We are told we spend more because we have the best health care system in the world.

But as Maggie Mahar points out in her new book, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, "We spend twice as much as Japan on health care -- yet few would argue that our health care system is twice as good." Mahar, a seasoned financial journalist, takes an in depth look at what she calls America's complicated and increasingly dysfunctional health care system, and what she finds is disturbing. Frankly, from a patient's perspective, it's reprehensible.

Doctors aren't allowed to function as doctors in putting a patient's needs first -- no -- medicine is business and corporations decide on a patient's treatment. To put it bluntly, medicine is a market-driven $2 trillion industry rife with competition. To cite just one example of what is taking place, and to illustrate how medicine truly sees itself  -- Milwaukee hospitals spent more in one year on advertising than fast food business did. Reviewers are calling Mahar's book a thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned study. I call it gutsy because she takes no prisoners and she isn't keeping any secrets. Until the day comes when doctors are allowed to practice medicine once again, with the priority on the patient and not corporate profit, the wheels on this buggy are going to keep falling off one by one until the axle completely splits in two. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how the system works and what motivates the players. The patients aren't even in the game. And that is what is truly appalling. 

Bordering on a Cure is a friendly challenge between the post office districts of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine who compete to see which district can sell the most Breast Cancer Awareness stamps during the month of May and June.

What does the winning post office district of this good-spirited rivalry get for selling the most stamps to benefit breast cancer research? If New Hampshire and Vermont post office districts win, there will be blueberry pie in their future -- courtesy of the postal district in Maine. If Maine wins, they will be receiving maple syrup. But, because of these wonderful post office workers, breast cancer research is the true winner. Since 1998, more than 657 million stamps have been sold, raising $50 million dollars for breast cancer research.

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.