A little while ago, Jacki wrote about Sarah, a young woman with Melanoma who died not long ago. In one of her last blog entries, Sarah lamented the loss of her friend Heather, calling Heather her inspiration. She urged readers to visit Heather's blog, claiming they would never be so uplifted and inspired. So I visited Heather's blog and it was bittersweet. From her last entry, after receiving good news from her doctor:

"I jumped. And the fall was endless, and I had no idea if anyone would be there to catch me, but I held on tight anyway. I kept the faith, held onto the hope, even though the odds looked so hopeless just a couple of short months ago. The fall was infinite.

Tears are streaming down my face. I can't stop them, and I'm not sure I want to. In a way, I want to feel the tragedy of life lost to cancer because it makes it all real. It makes it personal. It makes me realize the same tragedy could happen to me, my family members, my friends. It makes me want to make a difference even more now that I've seen the chilling pictures of a young woman dying of cervical cancer than moments earlier when I was moved mostly by my own breast cancer journey.

I first read about Heather Lyn Martin on the JANE magazine website, home of a beautifully-written story -- I Hate Tumors -- by Sara Lyle, long-time friend of Heather and senior editor for JANE, a publication for 20-something women. Sara's words powerfully depict the life and death of her friend, stricken with a disease she was sure she would beat. So sure, in fact, she asked Sara to help tell her success story.

Sadly, Heather never got to tell much. Because she died much too soon, at the age of 28. So Sara told the story through her own words and photos -- the same ones responsible for my tears -- and has just recently written a second essay, one year after her first story started reaching young people everywhere.

Sara wrote Why I Still Hate Tumors after inspiring many young women to open their eyes to the realities of a deadly disease. Her words serve to raise awareness about the dangers of cervical cancer -- and the HPV virus that causes it -- and to point women in the direction of resources critical for preventing and conquering the disease.

Sara, because of the death of her dear friend, is saving lives with her message. And she just may save yours.

To see all that Sara has to offer in the fight against cervical cancer and other hated tumors, visit her I Hate Tumors website.

For 18 months, New Zealand resident Heather Kubiak lived with undiagnosed breast cancer. It was no fault of her own that her disease was left undetected for all this time. It was the fault of the hospital staff who lost her file -- marked urgent -- and thus failed to communicate with her about the cancer living in her body.

In December 2003, Kubiak had both breasts removed because her cancer had spread. And so began the battle for her life -- and the battle against a system that admittedly botched up her medical care due to organizational failure.

It took years to resolve her claim but earlier this year, Kubiak, a wife and mother of four, received a lump-sum compensation of -- $9,000. That's $16.66 per day for every day of the 18 months her undiagnosed breast cancer continued to spread.

It was important for Kubiak to see her hospital held accountable -- and while $9,000 hardly makes up for what she has lost -- she is happy the legal ordeal is over. And she hopes her experience will motivate others to actively pursue their own medical misadventures.

"I do worry for people who aren't articulate enough or strong enough to fight the system because you have to keep on and on," she says.

Ryder Cup golfer Darren Clarke lost his wife Heather to breast cancer last month. Clarke has not played competitively since July 21 when he took time off from golfing to care for his wife. Since her passing, Clarke has been thinking and regrouping and mourning the loss of his 39-year-old wife and mother of their two young sons. Now, he is ready to re-enter the world of golf. He is ready, he says, for the upcoming Ryder Cup.

Clarke says his game is good and while his decision to return to his sport was tough, he is returning only because he knows he can fully contribute. And he knows his wife would have wanted him to play so he made himself available for selection. Clarke could not have qualified automatically due to the time he took off to care for Heather but he was eligible to be selected -- and he was. Clarke is grateful and prepared for the challenge. "I am stronger altogether," he says. "I've had to face up a lot of tough things. I hope I've come through it a better person."

Due to the recent death of Ryder Cup golfer Darren Clarke's young wife Heather to breast cancer, golfer Padraig Harrington is donating all the prize money he earns from playing in the PGA Championship to breast cancer research. To honor the memory of Heather Clarke, if he takes the trophy, he plans to donate the $1.2-million dollar purse to the breast cancer charity of Darren Clarke's choice.

"Darren has his choice of charity, and I'll donate whatever I win this week." Harrington said. "This is at least a practical way of helping." Many of the golfers in the tournament are wearing black arm bands to show respect.

Late Saturday night, Heather Clarke, only 39 years of age, mother of two small boys, passed away in London's Royal Marsden Hospital after her struggle to survive breast cancer that had spread to her bones and liver.

"I think both Darren and Heather were exceptionally brave and so dignified about what they've gone through," stated Harrington. "It's been terribly hard."

On Thursday, the funeral for Heather Clarke will take place in Portrush and she will be laid to rest at Ballywillan Church. Just ten years ago, Heather and Darren were married at Ballywillan Church.

With the deepest sadness, we post that Darren Clarke has lost his wife Heather after her long struggle to survive breast cancer. It is reported that Heather, who was 39, and the mother of two small boys Tyrone and Conor, passed away peacefully in London's Royal Marsden Hospital.

Heather had been fighting recurrent breast cancer that had spread to her bones and liver.

"Heather's courage and bravery throughout the last two years when she was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer has been an inspiration." said Clarke. "Heather never complained once throughout her ordeal and we will all miss her greatly. She was a wonderful and enormously supportive wife, mother and friend."

Three weeks ago, Ryder Cup golf pro Clarke announced on his blog that he was quitting golf to go home to support and care for Heather. "There are more important things in my life than golf and it's now time for me to be at home to continue helping Heather with her battle." Clarke said it was time to go home.

Related posts:
Darren Clarke: golfing under the shadow of cancer.
Tiger Woods and Darren Clarke leave golf course.
Darren Clarke: Shot of the Month trophy will be auctioned for cancer.
Darren Clarke: golf loses pro golfer due to cancer struggle.

On Darren Clarke's blog, he states, that in case you missed the BBC interview, he is quitting golf to go home to support and care for his wife who is battling breast cancer. Heather, his wife, is struggling a lot these days against a cancer attempting to defeat her.

"There are more important things in my life than golf and it's now time for me to be at home to continue helping Heather with her battle."

Heather has been battling breast cancer that has spread to her bones and liver. They have two sons, and while Clarke is a competitive athlete, his first priorities and heart are with his wife.

At the beginning of the year, he wrote in his blog, "I'll sign off for this year by wishing every one of you a very prosperous, happy and successful 2006. These last 12 months have been difficult to say the least, but when I have been able to get out on the course there have been enough signs to convince me that there are good times ahead. It was no coincidence that my late flourish to the season coincided with an improvement in Heather's condition and hopefully that trend will continue next year."

Now Clarke says it is time to go home.

08.13.2006 UPDATE: Darren Clarke has lost wife after long struggle with breast cancer.

Dooce. It's a blog. It's a woman who blogs. Being dooced is a word that means losing your job because of something you blogged. Back when blogs first started to become a popular activity, Heather B. Armstrong got fired for writing about work and the people she worked with, and it made national mainstream news. Dooce became a cautionary tale of weighing how much a blogger should reveal and what protection they should have in what they shared online. Eventually, everyone you blog about is going to find your blog. No one really thought that before Armstrong got fired for her satirical take on where she worked.

To this day, and by her own account, she receives hundreds of hate emails and blog comments. But she also has hundreds of thousands of devoted blog fans, readers who stop by at least once a day to get Dooce's take on her every day life -- which is usually quirky, insightful, irreverant and always humorous. From motherhood to Mormons, no one is safe and no topic off-limits as far as I can tell.

The latest blogging at Dooce has to do with cancer. It all started with a scar that kept growing and self-employment health insurance that had Heather asking how much a biopsy would cost before consenting to one because if it cost as much as a casket she needed to weigh her options. Luckily, whatever answer the doctor gave her, she consented to having the growth checked. The results of the biopsy are in. Heather has been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, as she blogs, the most common of all cancers.

"It is not a melanoma, and most likely will not kill me, but the fact that I have one at my age is cause for concern. It is the result of many years of negligence on my part, of all those times I never fully protected my skin from the sun. I'd say it wasn't ever willful negligence, necessarily, maybe just a huge portion of carelessness mixed with laziness and the idiotic assumption that it would never happen to me.

Now I'm afraid to go near a window else a ray of sun touch my skin and kill me instantly. Irrational, yes, but look what being rational got me in the first place: CANCER. Next week she is going to cut the whole thing out of my arm, and then I am going to bring it home and plant it in a jar next to the kitchen window. I will name it Ed."

After Dooce gets done blogging cancer, cancer will never be the same.

Stopped by Darren Clarke's blog today and read that he has donated the $1,840 dollar prize from his Shot of the Month award to cancer charity and will begin an online auction for the trophy that he received with it to raise additional money for cancer charity.

Clarke posted, "It really is a worthwhile cause and a superb trophy so here is a chance for a generous benefactor to help us fight this terrible disease by winning our auction."

Clarke's wife, Heather, has been battling breast cancer that has spread to her bones and liver. They have two sons, and while Clarke is a competitive athlete, his first priorities and heart are with his wife, as she struggles with ongoing cancer treatments.

When Tiger Woods was worried during his late father's struggle with prostate cancer, Clarke was one of the people Woods spent time with, as both understood how the other felt.

If you are interested in bidding on the trophy, Clarke said he will be posting information about it shortly.

08.13.2006 UPDATE: Darren Clarke has lost wife after long struggle with breast cancer.

7.21.2006 UPDATE: Darren Clarke: golf loses pro golfer due to cancer struggle.

Ontario's and Quebec's province-wide smoking ban in all public places went into effect on Wednesday -- to coincide with World No Tobacco Day. This is what Heather Crowe, a non-smoker who recently passed away from lung cancer, worked so passionately to make happen. As a waitress who worked in smoke-filled restaurants most of her adult life, she felt that second-hand smoke was the cause of her lung cancer. Crowe wanted to insure that no other person be subjected to second-hand smoke and suffer the same fate she did in being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Many approve of the new law banning smoking in all public places, but not the bingo halls that raise money for charity. Ontario's 100 charity bingo halls state the smoking ban will result in the closing of 48 bingo halls over the next year. The Committee to Save Charity Bingo representing the bingo halls indicate that charities will lose $50 million dollars that would normally have been raised during bingo because 70 percent of customers who play at charity bingo halls smoke. They fear the players won't be coming around if they cannot smoke while they play bingo. While it is not in the nature of people to welcome change -- especially when it comes to lifestyle changes -- they do have the enormous capacity to adapt to new situations and circumstances, and in time, I think everyone will become comfortable with the new way. Or at least find alternative ways to make everyone comfortable.

On May 24, 2006, The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation will be launching White Lies, a campaign to raise awareness of the health risks of consuming dairy products. Why You Don't Need Dairy, an event to mark the beginning of the campaign, will feature Heather Mills McCartney as a speaker who will call for milk to be dropped from the nation's diet. At the same time, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, PCRM, a nonprofit health organization comprised of physicians and nutritionists, will be asking consumers to eliminate dairy from their diet for three weeks to see if they notice an improvement in health.

In three short weeks, PCRM is confident those who take the dairy-free challenge will notice immediate benefit in better digestion, easier breathing, better sleep, a lessening of headaches and for sufferers of acne or dermatitis -- clear skin. Health benefits that are not immediately noticeable but of significant value is a reduction in the risk of prostate and ovarian cancer. Research had proven the link between dairy and these two cancers. Because dairy products such as cheese, ice cream, milk, butter, and yogurt all contain high levels of fat, it is reasonable to assume there might be a dairy link to other cancers as well.

The Nutrition Resource Centre of the Ontario Public Health Association, has published Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium, available as a PDF document online, with food suggestions that offer plenty of calcium.

Heather Crowe never smoked, but she was diagnosed with lung cancer. After 40 years of working as a waitress in smoked-filled restaurants, she became a lung cancer victim of second-hand cigarette smoke. Four years ago, she began a campaign of lobbying the Canadian government to pass a law banning smoking in all public places. In television ads for Health Canada, Crowe described herself as the face of cancer caused by second-hand smoke. Eventually, Crowe convinced the Ontario Government to pass the Smoke Free Ontario Act. On May 31st, all bars, restaurants and indoor public places must be 100 percent smoke-free. The act will ban any smoking in any enclosed public places and will add restrictions to the promotion, handling and display of cigarettes in stores. As a result of her efforts, Crowe is credited with accomplishing more in tobacco control to protect public health than any other one person. She had told people she wanted to live long enough to see the anti-smoking legislation go into effect.

Sadly, Crowe died one week before she could see that happen, but not before she accomplished what she set out to do, and her legacy to protect the health of the public from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke will live on for generations to come. Crowe was 61.

Paul McCartney lost both his mother Mary and his first wife Linda to breast cancer. Heather Mills McCartney, his current wife, is an outspoken advocate for cancer prevention, campaigning for the reduction of dairy products that can lead to greater risk for some cancers -- like ovarian cancer.

I have admired the efforts both have made for cancer prevention. Today, it was announced that the two have separated and will be getting a divorce. Of course speculation immediately turned to financial matters, with tongues wagging about how much Paul is worth and how much Heather stands to receive, considering there is no prenuptial agreement.

The couple issued a joint statement insisting their split was friendly -- but said that intrusions by the media made it difficult to sustain their relationship. Well! This turn of event isn't going to dim the lights on the media extravaganza that has surrounded them. The end of a marriage is difficult, and I am just sad to see that two people who have spent time and money working to improve the lives and health of others will be suffering personal pain on a world stage. You can read personal messages directly from Paul here.

While attending his caddie Steve Williams wedding in New Zealand, Tiger Woods announced he is taking time off to be with his father and will not be playing in any golf tournaments until the U.S. Open in June. "It's kind of up in the air with the situation back home, so I don't know what's going to happen," said Woods. "I'm taking time off. I'm here for this event and for Steve, and to enjoy time off and be with my father, so I won't play for a while." Woods has been very clear in his priorities when it comes to his father, Earl Woods, who is battling prostate cancer. Back in March, Woods remarked, "It puts things in perspective. You hit a bad shot, and you want to get upset with yourself because you know you can hit better shots, but in the whole scheme of things, it's just a golf shot."

It is also reported that Darren Clarke withdrew from the Shell Houston Open after his first round to return home to be with Heather, his wife, who has been battling breast cancer for the last four years. Sadly, the cancer has spread to her bones and liver. They have two sons. He did not make any public comment. The PGA issued a statement on his behalf, letting everyone know he had left the tournament. In 2005, Clarke took much of the season off to be with his wife as she underwent chemotherapy.

According to the American Cancer Society, three out of four families will be touched by cancer -- but each time you hear news that another family is facing the tough circumstances of cancer never lessens the heartbreak felt for each one of them.

August 13, 2006 Update: Darren Clarke has lost wife after long struggle with breast cancer.
May 03. 2006 Update: Tiger Woods loses father to cancer.

Irishman avoids temptations of St. Patrick's Day, a sports feature written by Steve Campbell for the Houston Chronicle, Campbell wonders how Darren Clarke, an Irishman who never met a pub or a pint he didn't like, rang in a holiday that celebrates drinking without drinking. Clarke, who is currently 10 under, tied with Lucas Glover and Greg Owen, and four strokes behind Rod Pampling in the Bay Hill Invitational, answered with, "By remaining ridiculously sober, which goes against all my principles." Saturday morning, in his first round after St. Patrick's Day, Clarke went on a birdie binge and surged from a tie for 39th to a tie for second with a bogey-free, 9-under 63.

All joking aside, Clarke's wife, Heather, is gravely ill with breast cancer that has spread to her bones and liver. They have two sons, and while Clarke is a competitive athlete, his first priorities and heart are with his wife, as she struggles with ongoing cancer treatments. Clarke keeps an online journal at his website, where he talks about golf, his wife's cancer, family and life.

On the last day of 2005, he wrote, "I'll sign off for this year by wishing every one of you a very prosperous, happy and successful 2006. These last 12 months have been difficult to say the least, but when I have been able to get out on the course there have been enough signs to convince me that there are good times ahead. It was no coincidence that my late flourish to the season coincided with an improvement in Heather's condition and hopefully that trend will continue next year."

Today he wrote, "Actually I didn't do anything outrageous or hole any ridiculously long shots. I just played well and everything clicked together. I haven't been able to play a lot of golf this year so it's good to score well on a very tough golf course. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it going. I'll certainly be trying to." We are hoping today is the start of many good times ahead.

8.13.2006 UPDATE: Darren Clarke has lost wife after long struggle with breast cancer.
7.21.2006 UPDATE: Darren Clarke: golf loses pro golfer due to cancer struggle.