I wrote recently about The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the inner strength she says she acquired from helping care for her mother during a battle with breast cancer. I ended my post with this statement: It seems a common thread -- the fact that cancer makes us all stronger in one way or another. It's one of the silver linings, I think. Cancer can be a gift. We just have to regard it as one and look hard for its hidden treasures.
Two readers have since left comments indicating I must be crazy for thinking of cancer as a gift. One reader wrote: I'm certainly glad that Elisabeth was able to take something positive away from her mother's bout with breast cancer, but I'm not sure that I can buy into the "gift" part.
We know her best as the spunky headband-wearing contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback and most recently as the vivacious co-host on the daytime talk show The View. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is a fighter -- whether she's duking it out to win $1 million or defending herself in front of a television audience. Remember her on-screen political feud with Rosie O'Donnell just before O'Donnell's departure from The View? 
