Oakland Athletics center fielder Nick Swisher appeared at Saturday evening's pregame event wearing three ponytails. Prepared to donate his locks to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths non-profit campaign, Swisher said just before his ponytails were snipped, "I feel like Pippi Longstocking. I look so goofy right now. But if I can make a difference in one or two women's lives, it's worth it."

Swisher's father -- major league baseball player Steve Swisher -- did the cutting honors. And it was fitting the two men were in on this endeavor together because Swisher's grandmother -- his dad's mother -- died from brain cancer two years ago.

"The initial idea was out of respect for my mom -- but the second thing is: It's time for a haircut,'' Steve Swisher said. "I'm so proud of Nick. He's bringing attention to a good cause and that's what it's all about.''

Pantene creates free wigs for women dealing with hair loss from cancer treatment.

Today I watched a video of myself. I was interviewing my grandmother about her 83 years worth of memories -- a project my husband and I dreamed up so that my grandma's life story would live on long after her death.

The video was taped in May 2000, three years before my grandma died and four and a half years before I was diagnosed with cancer. My hair was long and blond and straight, like it had been since I was a little girl, and it was twisted and clipped on the top of my head. I instantly longed for this hair -- and for my grandma too -- and just as I was convincing myself that my post-chemotherapy dark, curly hair was merely a new phase of my life -- much like the phase of living without my grandma -- my six-year-old son entered the room, looked at the TV screen and said, "Mommy, I really like your hair like that."

"I do too," I told Joey.

"Can you get it back?" he said.

"No, I can't get it back," I replied, knowing that I would never bleach my hair back to its original natural color and that the forces of nature will forever prevent me from removing the curl that today looked somewhat like what frames a lion's face.

So, no, I can't get my hair back. And I can't get my grandma back. But I am thankful for the video that captures us together, talking and laughing and remembering. And should my own grandchildren ever wish to interview me when I am 83 years old, I will definitely tell them about my sweet and spunky grandma and all of her touching stories. And I will tell them about the great blond hair I had the privilege of wearing for the first 34 years of my life.

Since 1988, Wendy Chioji has been a reporter and anchorwoman for WESH 2 News in Orlando, Florida. She has covered news ranging from the pope's visit to Cuba in 1998 to the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002. She continuously covered last year's hurricanes, and she has an Emmy award under her belt for a special news report on heroin use.

Wendy is a top notch athlete. She has run five marathons and competed in several triathlons and half-ironman races. She has ridden in parts of several stages of the Tour de France, and traveled across the country with Lance Armstrong in 2003 -- covering 550 miles -- with the Tour of Hope event to raise awareness for cancer research. Wendy has also made a tour with stage II breast cancer. Since 2001, she has been surviving this disease.

I never thought the time would come when I could fill a page with names of people I know who have cancer or have died from cancer. When my mom's very best friend died years and years ago of pancreatic cancer, it seemed a remote chance that something like that would happen to someone I know. And then slowly, either because cancer cases increased or because my awareness increased -- or both -- my list of people with cancer grew and grew and grew. And now it's quite long. And it's quite disturbing. And it's empowering too -- because most people on my growing list are surviving. And here are seven survivors who are somehow connected to me -- seven survivors who make up just the tip of the cancer iceberg in my life that stretches far and wide.

I was present for death only one time in my 36 years of life. I consider this both a bad and a good thing. It's bad because I did not want my grandmother to die -- and watching it happen made it so real, so vivid, so painful. I don't think I would have ever chosen to watch my grandma die -- to watch her slip from consciousness to coma, to observe her altered body once death arrived, to witness the movement of her body on a stretcher as it was wheeled out of the house from the bedroom I still see every time I visit my mom's house. But I think I am lucky really -- and this is the good part -- because I got to be with her during her final moments. I got to watch her body as it lay still, peaceful and calm and still breathing. I got to talk to her and although she could not respond, I believe she could hear my words. And it makes me happy to know my grandma may have known I was with just prior to her flight to heaven. And after her flight, I got to touch her cool hands. I got to feel the power of the passing of one life -- a long life -- and I got to feel the comfort of a death that was not ugly or painful or difficult. It was sad -- it's still sad -- that my grandma died three years ago. But what a privilege it was to be part of the day she left this world.

Susan DeWilde left this world in much the same way -- with loved ones by her side. She was a fighter and had conquered several rounds of breast cancer, a tumor in her spinal cord, uterine cancer, lymphatic cancer, and then leukemia, which took her life at the age of 53. I don't know this from Susan herself but from her friend, Christy Mack -- who helped her accept her death and guided her into her own final moments so that she could escape her pain and die peacefully. Christy writes about her beautiful friend and her empowering death in an article that appears in the August 2006 Oprah Magazine. Titled Friends to the End, Christy's story details how she soothed her friend, cradled her hand, and talked her through her last breaths. She helped her on her way during a time her friend feared most. Christy writes, "What she and I shared the night she died was a precious gift of friendship, emotionally profound and sacred in its perfection. It broke my heart. It strengthened my soul."

This I understand.

Breast cancer made Pink Penguin Press founder Jim Powers feel helpless when his aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. He took a look at the women in his family -- at his daughters -- and realized that they were surrounded by breast cancer. Both grandmothers had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Their aunt had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Their mother had a benign breast tumor removed.

Powers decided to stop feeling helpless and make a difference by dedicating his life to fighting breast cancer. He has founded Pink Penguin Press, a non-profit organization with a purpose of beating breast cancer. This coming October, Pink Penguin Press will introduce the premiere issue of BC Nutrition Magazine, an alternative publication featuring up-to-date information on nutrition, alternative therapies, breast cancer research, diet, and lifestyle in a self-education and lifestyle awareness format. A special free preview issue is available now at local health food stores.

Within Pink Penguin Press, you can sign up for Life Saving Email, a free monthly self-check reminder system. Each monthly email is filled with the latest research, valuable nutrition advice and directions to guide you through a breast self-exam. Life Saving Email also sends out annual reminders for subscriber scheduled mammograms. In addition, there are links to educational information about breast health and breast cancer. Ribbon Nutrition is a sponsor of Pink Penguin Press.

What would you do if you tested positive for a gene that caused the death of many of your family members? The descendants of Golda Bradfield, who died of gastric cancer and from whom the defective gene was inherited, made a radical decision based on knowing they had inherited the gene that killed their grandmother. Eleven cousins in all had their stomachs removed to avoid the certain fate of dying from gastric cancer. Some of the cousins had already watched their parents, aunts and uncles, die from gastric cancer. It is a decision they do not regret. After the stomachs were surgically removed and sent to the lab for analysis, the stomach tissue had already begun to develop cancerous growths. Without surgical removal of the stomach, this would not have been discovered in time as there are no tests to detect early stage gastric cancer.

According to experts, in the near future, doctors may do routine DNA tests to detect disease risks that can be lowered. "We do not yet have a general DNA test that fits into that category, but we're headed for it at a pretty good clip," said Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The CDH1 gene mutation, first discovered about eight years ago in a New Zealand family with a history of stomach cancer, is extremely rare. It is estimated only 100 families worldwide carry the flawed gene that leads to hereditary gastric cancer.  

I admire the ambition and resolve of Jennifer Rogers, a 29 year old native from the San Francisco Bay Area who started a cosmetics company to fight cancer after losing her grandmother to a long battle with cancer. Sometimes it is good to know what is behind a product, and this is the story of why Rogers became determined to see her vision of a cosmetics company to help in finding a cure for cancer become a reality.

"When you lose hope you feel like you have lost everything. My grandmother was approved for clinical trials to test a very promising new drug that had recently been approved by the FDA for other cancer use. Traditional treatments had not worked and it really was our glimmer of hope at a devastating time. Two weeks after she was approved for trials she showed up as scheduled to receive the treatment and was told that her body was physically too weak for the medication and they sent her home knowing she would die. Watching her struggle with cancer and never complain or give up the fight has forever changed me."

Someone asked Rogers what made her think she could start her own cosmetics company, and she replied, "Nobody ever said I couldn't." She first entered her cosmetics company idea in the Visa Challenge Ideas Happen contest. While her idea was well received, she did not win. This didn't stop her though, and in 2004 she launched Parlay Cosmetics on her own. Parlay donates 50 cents of every product purchase to the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation. Parlay means to take original winnings and bet on an upcoming event. With cosmetics named Roulette Rouge, Dice Rollin' Diva, Blackjack Babe, Showdown Shimmer Paints and Payline Princess Eyeliner, you can bet on Roger's new cosmetic company to be a winner.

Young Grammy-winning singer Soraya, one of the first Latin singer songwriters to write and record in both English and Spanish, has lost her life to breast cancer. Soraya, whose mother, aunt and grandmother died of breast cancer, was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer six years ago. She had treatment and went into remission from the disease, but sources say she relapsed at the beginning of this year.

A soulful and romantic singer who combined her music with a social conscience, launched a promising career a decade ago. Known as a charismatic performer, she had hits on Spanish-language charts and her success in English had caught the attention of Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos and Sting, who all asked her to be an opening act on their tours. She had also collaborated with her childhood hero, Carole King. Soraya went on to become one of the most acclaimed female voices in Latin pop and rock. She released her last album in 2005. She was 37.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are expecting the birth of their first baby together in a few months. Marcheline Bertrand, Jolie's mother, is gravely ill with terminal uterine cancer and not expected to live much longer. Bertrand has asked her daughter to give birth in France, where Bertrand was born, to maintain a "circle of life." But her mother will not be in France for the birth of her grandchild. Bertrand is in Los Angeles California. Reports say Jolie father, actor Jon Voight, Jolie and Pitt, make regular visits to the hospital where Bertrand is being treated.

Jolie is in a difficult position. Do you honor the dying wishes of your mother, if it means you may miss precious last moments with her before she dies? Or do you ignore what your mother wants, so that you can be with her and share with her, the birth of your child? Jolie will need to decide soon. What would you do?