Miss Tidewater Brittany Lietz, skin cancer survivor and nursing student, was crowned Miss Maryland on Saturday night. 

Lietz, diagnosed with skin cancer at the age of 20, has been using her celebrity position as a beauty pageant winner as a platform for raising awareness of the dangers associated with too much sun exposure. She speaks to high school students at their schools and attends booths at health fairs to warn others her age that the cost of a golden glow is too high a price to pay when you put yourself in harm's way. She has a white scar running across the back of her right rib cage, and she has had 20 other moles removed since she was first diagnosed with melanoma. These days, she uses self-tanning sprays to achieve the look of a tan because a tan is still an asset when you compete in beauty pageants. A pump-spray tan is as close as she wants to be to the sun.

"To me, being tan is not worth losing my life over," she said. "I'm going to be pale and that's who I am."  Lietz plans to use her personal experience as a skin cancer survivor, the visible physical scars she has from skin cancer surgery and her new celebrity status as Miss Maryland -- and possibly as Miss America -- to continue raising awareness about skin cancer.

You can watch Baltimore's WJZ-TV Healthwatch reporter Kellye Lynn's television news story featuring Lietz's battle with skin cancer here at the Video Library Healthwatch: Hopkins Scientists Develop New Tool To Fight Melanoma.

Ford is calling all warriors to bang your drum -- paint your face -- run -- walk -- and fight for the breast cancer cure. Ford and Ford dealers are recruiting Warriors to ramp up the fight against breast cancer. As the Ford for Warriors in Pink page states, "Ford Warriors in Pink can be found at the Komen Race for the Cure events as always, only now they will arrive as a united front, as one in Warrior gear."

The Warrior gear are symbols and each one carries a meaning. War Paint is worn by Warriors ready to enter battle; The Warriors represent the power and the courageous who fight against breast cancer; Wings honor the angels who have passed after their fight against breast cancer; Crowned Warriors remind us that breast cancer touches the lives of both genders; Feathers represent kinship and are traditionally used in battle; Hearts represent the love in the lives of breast cancer fighters, their family and friends; Chevron is a French word meaning rafter and signifies protection and Plants represent life, growth and survival.

Recently, someone remarked to me that they could not write about cancer every day. During the 30 second I Run video spot featured on the Warriors in Pink web page, there is a little girl who holds up a handwritten sign that says, My Mommy's going to make it. That is why I can write about cancer every day. As a breast cancer survivor, I believe, and I survive and I fight for all the mommies -- so one day little girls won't have to lose their mommies. That is how I can do it. Every day -- for as long as I survive. If you want to join a positive and powerful campaign in the fight against breast cancer, check out  In Every Woman there is a Warrior in Pink.