Wednesday, May 16 is this year's LIVESTRONG Day. Spearheaded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), this day is a grassroots initiative intended to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about the disease on a national level and in local communities.

Want to LIVE STRONG on Wednesday?

Think about this:

• Wear yellow. Encourage co-workers, friends, family members, and neighbors to do the same.
• Hold a candlelight vigil in honor of those affected by cancer.
• Say something special at church, a work meeting, a luncheon, a playgroup.
• Volunteer at your local hospital.
• Plant flowers or a garden in honor of cancer survivors.
• Visit this search tool and find official LIVESTRONG Day events in your area. Check here for a listing of all planned events in all cities.
  
• Get to work on next year's LIVESTRONG Day. Stop by the LAF website for more information.

The primary recipient of the 2006 grants for Curing Kid's Cancer is the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Curing Kid's Cancer is a charity that raises money for leading edge pediatric cancer research. The organization was inspired by nine year old Killian Owen's battle with leukemia. The $100,000 grant was given to Johns Hopkins for research into new targeted therapies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Curing Kid's Cancer has two national grassroots programs -- Coaches Curing Kid's Cancer and Teachers Curing Kid's Cancer.

The programs fund the development of cutting edge therapies which will revolutionize childhood cancer treatment by replacing traditional chemotherapy.

Curing Kid's Cancer aims to raise both awareness and money to find cures for all types of childhood cancers. Their objective is to turn this killer disease into a curable one in our lifetime.

Monday night is Courage Night, hosted by the Young Survival Coalition (YSC), national sorority Zeta Tau Alpha (ZTA), and Lifetime television. It's a night when Lifetime's Original Movie Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy will air, when crowds will gather in communities and on college campuses across the nation for special screenings and viewing parties of the movie that brings glaring attention to the issue of breast cancer.

Courage Night was created in 2004 by Geralyn Lucas, author of the book Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, as an evening of celebration in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It was also a celebration of the publication of her then-new book.

Lucas, diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27, recounts in her memoir every step of her cancer journey, including her bold application of red lipstick just before her mastectomy. She knew from the day she was diagnosed she would speak out to help others, to raise awareness, to make a difference. Now 39, a mother of two, and an executive for Lifetime, Lucas is still making waves. And Courage Night lives on.

Courage Night has grown into a national grassroots event that honors breast cancer survivors and those lost to the disease. Event fundraising will benefit YSC -- the only organization dedicated to the special issues of young breast cancer survivors.

Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, starring actress Sarah Chalke, will air Monday, October 23 at 9:00 PM.

Menopause naturally happens in a woman's life some time between the age of 45 to 55. In the case of chemo-induced menopause, there is no traditional timeline. For younger women, menopause brought on by chemotherapy can be a temporary phase or permanent transition. For women already nearing the age when menopause might start to occur, chemotherapy can push them into it a few years early. But -- however a woman reaches the menopause phase of life -- the experience of menopause is universally the same. Knowing this, Jeanie Linders, a writer, produced the first Menopause The Musical in 2001. According to information provided on the show website, "Since its first performance, the show has evolved as a grassroots movement of women who deal with life after 40 and all the challenges that result in the mental, physical and spiritual freedom of over 38 million baby boomer females." According to the audience, it is hilarious!

Janet Rigdon wanted to see the musical, but it wasn't going to be touring anywhere near where she lived, so she emailed Linders to ask if the show could make a stop in her town. That's the beauty of email -- you can do that sort of thing. Rigdon told Linders she was an ovarian cancer survivor who felt the musical was something women cancer survivors like her and her support group of women friends could relate to when she said, “I told her we could go to dinner and then play, and take our minds off cancer for one night. We want to laugh too.”

After getting to know Rigdon through email conversations, Linders decided to use the show to raise awareness and research funds for ovarian cancer. Through the musical's Women Foundation, a national ovarian cancer campaign was launched under the banner Menopause the Musical Out Loud: Breaking the Silence of Ovarian Cancer. Rigdon and her friends got to see the show, and through the wonder of web email, a new campaign for cancer was launched -- in the form of a laugh out loud musical.

Thanks to Sue of My Menopause Blog for the introduction to a musical about menopause! Who knew.