Last Tuesday night, I watched Greta Van Susteren of Fox News' On The Record as she interviewed Brittany Lietz, Miss Maryland 2006. Greta asked Brittany what her Miss Maryland job entails. Brittany told Greta her full-time job is to represent her platform -- skin cancer.

Brittany didn't choose just any topic for her platform. She chose one that is entirely personal.

Skin cancer has left more than 20 scars on Brittany's body. One, on her back, marks the site where a stage two melanoma was removed when she was just 19 years old. It presented as a mole, a little smaller than a nickel, she says. In all likelihood, the cancer was caused by two years of tanning bed use. Brittany says she probably tanned every day for two years. Her pursuit of bronzed skin began when she was 17 and wanted a tan for her prom. It ended after doctors told her she had cancer.

Fred Thompson, actor and former United States Senator from Tennessee, made the announcement today that he was diagnosed with lymphoma a few years ago and now is in remission.

Thompson added to that announcement that he was considering running in the 2008 Presidential Election. He stated today on Fox News, "I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future -- and with no debilitating side effects".

You can find Thompson playing a district attorney Arthur Branch on the NBC drama Law and Order.

White House press secretary and colon cancer survivor Tony Snow asks the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions regarding the surgery he will have on Monday to remove a growth from his lower abdomen.

Blood tests and a CAT scan of the growth show no presence of cancer, he reports. But still, he and doctors are proceeding cautiously due to his history.

Snow, a former Fox News radio and television talk show host, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, when he was a commentator at Fox. Two months after surgery, he returned to the air and then became White House press secretary in April 2006.

Snow's plan is to be back behind the podium a few weeks after surgery, when he has a better idea of what it is he's dealing with.

Ohio State quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels is part of a coaching staff preparing to take on the University of Florida in the NCAA Football National Championship in Glendale, Arizona next week. It's a big game, with big stakes -- but it's just one match-up Daniels plans to tackle this year. He's also in the midst of a game with cancer -- a game he plans to win.

Daniels, a 64-year-old assistant to head coach Jim Tressel and contender for the Broyles Award, given January 16 to the nation's top assistant coach, was diagnosed with kidney cancer this past year shortly after suffering a heart attack and while mourning the death of his mother. Although it was a tough year, he still managed to make it through his 37th season as an assistant coach. He and his wife, Kathy, say it's been a hard road but a blessed one too.

"Cancer is a terrible disease," says Kathy. "But in a lot of ways, it's enriched our lives. It's not the burden a lot of people expect it to be. Maybe it's because we've been so fortunate to have football as a distraction."

The Buckeyes' 12-0 season -- complete with a Heisman Trophy victory for quarterback Troy Smith -- was quite a distraction for Daniels who was able to avoid chemotherapy and radiation and is faithfully taking a drug called Sutent to treat his malignant tumor. He takes a pill for 28 days, then takes 14 days off, and then begins again.

Medically, everything seems to be working out just fine for Daniels. His monthly check-ups continue to deliver good news, and he reports he has felt good, with just a bit of fatigue, for the entire season.

Now about that other game. Tune into the FOX network on Monday, January 8 at 8:15 PM -- and watch it all unfold.

While Anaia Bedford, wife of Emmy award winning photographer Ken Bedford, underwent chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer, both Anaia and Ken conducted research and asked many questions of experts. According to what they learned, early detection, a healthy diet, exercise and a strong immune system are the keys to breast cancer survival and that "breast cancer awareness and education among African American and other minority women in general is vital because there is a lack of medical attention due to financial hardships, spousal rejection fears and being so terrified that the disease will take their lives."

Anaia felt that had she been diagnosed earlier, her chances of survival would have been greater. Anaia lost her struggle to survive breast cancer in 2004.

The Anaia Breast Cancer Awareness Program was founded by her family to increase breast cancer awareness and promote early detection in minority communities. As a tribute to Anaia and to educate women about breast cancer, an annual gala is hosted at the Galleria Marchetti in Chicago. This year's keynote speaker was Dancing with the Stars Vivica A. Fox. Governor Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Richard Daley, Angela Winbush, Phil Perry, Glenn Jones, Howard Hewett and jazz Sax Man Ray Silkman also attended the event.

Anaia believed "Knowledge is power, the more you know and understand will reduce many of the fears and myths you hear about breast cancer." Her family and friends are continuing the cause of raising breast cancer awareness Anais felt was important to surviving cancer. To learn more, visit the Anaia Breast Cancer Awareness Program.

If you haven't tried fishing, it is one of the most relaxing, and at the same time, exciting ways to spend a day. If I want to find a center of calm and peace in my life, fishing is a guaranteed remedy to the hustle and bustle of an often too-busy lifestyle. Water is soothing, and nature has a way of resetting your internal clock to a slower more natural rhythm.

National Baseball Hall of Famer Boston Red Sox Wade Boggs and television's Addictive Fishing host Captain Blair Wiggins first met through the Pediatric Cancer Foundation (PCF). On November 10-12, with other celebrities and fishermen, both will take part in the Ninth Annual Mercury Grand Slam Celebrity Fishing Tournament as part of Reel In The Cure to raise money for childhood cancers.

In the meantime, on September 3rd, you can catch Boggs on the Addictive Fishing show on the FOX Sports Net (FSN) channel as he attempts to reel in the biggest redfish off Florida's Space Coast. Maybe you have to be as big a fan of fishing as we are to truly appreciate the excitement of watching a show about fishing. It's not the same as fishing, but it comes close. According to the press release, Wiggins is credited with bringing outdoor sports programming to a whole new level with Addictive Fishing.

Five years ago, President Bush restricted federal funding for any new human embryonic stem cell research. Many believe the objections are based soley on religious convictions, and without scientific or true ethical merit. The argument against Bush's stand has been that creating embryonic stem cells from a patient's tissues, correcting the genetic defects, and get the repaired cells back into the patient, opens the door to many cures for diseases. At one time or the other, Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox and Lance Armstrong have all spoken out against the federal funding ban -- as have many intelligent scientists and respected members in the medical community who see the devastating effects disease or profound physical injury can have on a patient.

Harvard University researchers are going around the federal funding ban by using only private funds and will begin research in an effort to clone human embryos as a source of stem cells. The researchers do not go into this lightly. They have visited the ethical issues at length and created strict standards for the research work and as they said, "to separate out all funding so that not a penny of federal money is spent on the effort." I honor and respect a person's personal religious beliefs -- there are many religions and many different religious beliefs to honor and respect -- but I do not feel it should ever dictate government policy -- especially if it means depriving patients of potential cures to disease.

According to a recent American Cancer Society survey, less than ten percent of Americans know that being overweight -- and obesity -- is a risk factor for cancer. Of those polled, 83 percent could tell you that being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease, and 57 percent could tell you that obesity puts you at greater risk for diabetes, but only eight percent believed that being overweight and obesity increases your risk for developing cancer.

Nearly 20 percent knew their body mass index score, almost 40 percent knew their cholesterol number, 63 percent knew their blood type and interestingly, 65 percent knew the number of judges on Fox's American Idol. What does this say? That the television show, American Idol does a better job of getting people's attention. There's a lesson in here somewhere for the organizations trying to raise awareness about cancer and cancer prevention. 

Can you teach empathy and compassion? If you are a parent, the answer is yes. As a parent, you teach empathy and compassion to your children by the example of treating them with empathy and compassion; and in involving them in acts of compassion in the care for others. I believe caring for a pet in the home is one of the traditional ways of helping children learn empathy and compassion. Another is family participation in volunteerism and community-betterment projects.

Can you teach empathy and compassion to medical students as a university course? Medical schools are willing to try, and are hiring actors to train doctors good bedside manners when they have to give bad news. "A lot of these medical students are brainiacs who can absorb all the information they learn in class, but they don't know how to talk to people,'' says Joshua Stager, program coordinator at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

I think that is an over-generalization, and slightly less-than-generous statement in reference to the character and demeanor of all medical students -- but then again -- if you have watched the television show House, maybe a course in bedside manner is a very good thing for some medical students. Medical schools see enough of a need for education in empathy and compassion they are requiring these classes as part of medical training. Interestingly, a new section of a medical student's national licensing exam now includes tests on bedside manner.