Battling cancer can at times feel like slowly paddling upstream against currents that are both forceful and unforgiving. Sometimes reprieve comes only when we find others in the same boat, others submerged in their own rough waters, others who truly know what it's like to navigate a dreadful disease.

I am lucky -- in an odd sort of cancer way -- because I had breast cancer. Many women have breast cancer. And while this really is a horrible fact, it makes for a great sea of support. At times when I felt I was drowning in cancer, I reached for my lifeguards -- the women who paddled before me, the women paddling alongside me -- and they coached me, guided me, saved me from one the worst side effects of cancer. Isolation.

I have rarely felt isolated in my cancer journey and as a result, I have not thought much about this lonely cancer consequence. But I am thinking about it now -- thanks to a reader who has courageously shared her story with me, in hopes of locating someone in her same boat, in hopes of creating connections with other survivors who share the challenges of her disease.

Tanya has anal cancer. She was diagnosed one year ago -- during a routine colonoscopy -- with squamous cell carcinoma in-situ in her anal canal, on the wall between the anus and vagina. Previous abdominal discomfort, much like dull menstrual pain, preceded Tanya's screening but she was sure it was due to menopause. She was 53 at the time.

But it wasn't menopause. It was cancer. And it was devastating for Tanya who was spared radical surgery in exchange for a combination of radiation and a chemotherapy called the Nigro Protocol. First came a mitomycin push followed by four to five days of 5-Fluorouracil. Radiation came next -- for six weeks -- and then Tanya endured another round of the same chemotherapy regimen.

"The treatment was brutal," Tanya says. "By the end of the sixth week, I was in a lot of pain, especially since the affected area had a lot of traffic and could not exactly be decommissioned and allowed to heal."

Although she was told by her oncologist she tolerated her treatment well, Tanya says it was pure hell.

Tanya's treatment ended in March and an August biopsy revealed she is doing just fine. Her cancer appears to be gone. What is not gone, however, is the discomfort that still plagues her -- both physically and emotionally. And while the physical scars are simply terrible -- she feels pain during urination and bowel movements and is currently unable to have intercourse with her knight-in-shining-armor husband -- the emotional isolation is overwhelming distressing.

"I have not shared this experience with too many people since I feel awkward discussing that part of my anatomy and because the condition is so uncommon," Tanya says. "I would, however, be most grateful to discuss any or all of this with someone who has been through the same experience."

If you have been in Tanya's same cancer boat, have paddled similar waters, or know someone with whom she might connect, please consider contacting this brave survivor at sultana@cyberight.net.

Last week, I watched actress Emma Thompson portray with real power a life derailed by cancer in the 2001 HBO screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Wit by Margaret Edson.

I watched the movie, on DVD and in the privacy of my own home, almost six years after it was released -- and two years after my own cancer derailment. I like the order in which it all happened -- having cancer and then watching the movie, rather than watching the movie and then having cancer.

Thompson's portrayal of Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., professor of 17th-century English poetry, and expert on the sonnets of John Donne, was entirely real -- so real I sometimes felt I was reliving my own journey with cancer.

The cold, impersonal delivery of Bearing's treatment plan -- eight high-dose, experimental chemotherapy treatments taken over the course of eight months for stage-four metastatic ovarian cancer, an aggressive and advanced form -- reminded me of the matter-of-fact manner in which doctors speak to patients, the manner in which my own oncologist spoke to me, void of compassion and warmth and concern.

The on-going sterile and clinical interactions Bearing encounters from doctors, technicians, nurses, and medical students allowed me to appreciate the very few caring souls who crossed my medical path.

Bearing resolves to become a scholar on cancer, just as she has on Donne. And while I am no Ph.D. scholar, I did study cancer, sometimes to a fault, in order to acquire some sort of control over what was happening to me.

Chemotherapy makes Bearing sick. It made me sick too. Chemotherapy lands Bearing in hospital isolation. It landed me there too. Cancer scares Bearing. It scared me too.

Sometimes, cancer -- the return of cancer -- still scares me. But mostly, I am happy to be alive, happy to be watching movies that authentically capture the reality of cancer, movies that make me proud to have overcome what Bearing's doctor calls an insidious disease.

According to data available on cancer patients and caregivers, of all the patients diagnosed with cancer, at least 50 percent will be cared for by a family member. Cancer Caregivers Strength for Caring points to a survey from the Journal of Family Nursing that provides insight into the life and unmet needs of a cancer caregiver.

Some of the information from the study reveals that 82 percent of cancer caregivers are women; 71 percent are married; 54 percent live with the patient; 47 percent are more than 50 years old and 36 percent reported care giving took more than 40 hours of time per week.

Cancer caregivers make certain the person they are caring for has everything they need and often take care of the cancer patient's normal daily tasks, errands and chores that the loved one with cancer might not be able to do for themselves while undergoing cancer surgery and treatments. What the study found was cancer caregivers do not take time to take care of themselves and the toll it takes on the caregiver can be negative and profound.

The Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation has honored Dakota Fanning with the 2006 Heart of Gold Award. The award was presented by Fanning’s friend and Dreamer co-star Elisabeth Shue, in the foundation's acknowledgment of Fanning's devotion and dedication to helping others. Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation A Stellar Night award evening was hosted by actresses and Starlight Starbright supporters Jamie Lee Curtis and Teri Hatcher. Dakota Fanning is a beloved and phenomenally gifted child actress who has starred in a number of major films and it is not surprising she is also phenomenally compassionate and highly sensitive to the needs of others.

The Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation is making a difference in the lives of seriously ill children and their families with innovative and valuable programs such as PC Pals that provide laptop computers to pediatric patients loaded with a variety of entertaining and educational software and filtered Internet access that allows hospitalized kids to email and instant message their friends and family; Great Escapes which hosts ball games, picnics, cruises, spa days and movie premiers, allowing families time to connect with other families, make new friends, and spend family time together; Explorer Series CD-ROMs that helps seriously ill kids and teens a fun way to find out more about common medical procedures like IVs, Xrays, MRIs, CT Scans, Bone Marrow Aspirations and spinal Taps; and Coping with Chemo -- animated episodes and stories that help teens cope with the challenges of living with cancer -- including getting diagnosed, dealing with grief and isolation, telling friends, the side effects of treatment, making tough decisions and celebrating the last treatment. Coping with Chemo is free and available online.

Cancer is a physical disease. But it has striking affects on mental, emotional and spiritual wellness too. Worried Sick: The Emotional Impact of Cancer is a report done by Macmillan Cancer Support that illustrates the devastating emotional impact cancer can have for the patient and family living with cancer, and the lack of support services available to address these needs. Depression, anxiety, and isolation are common feelings. The entire experience of cancer can place a serious strain on the best of relationships. It can end less durable relationships. Divorce and separation can be an outcome of the stress of living with a life-threatening illness. Cancer patients report feeling alone and abandoned with no one they can really talk even when they do not live alone.

Personally, I know of a woman who was struggling through the grueling ordeal of chemotherapy. She had suffered all the physical side-effects of chemotherapy, such as hair loss, weight loss, weakness -- drained of any healthly glow. She was not in a good marriage to begin with, but at her most vulnerable and weakest moment, her husband actually turned to her and said, "Why don't you just hurry up and die." Up until that moment, she was not sure she was going to survive cancer. In that moment, she became determined not only to survive cancer, but her husband. Today, years later, she is a breast cancer survivor. True story.

For a surprising majority of cancer patients, the negative emotional impact of cancer far outweighs the physical reality of having cancer. The complete report -- Worried Sick: The Emotional Impact of Cancer -- is available as a PDF document.