There is nothing unusual about a non-profit organization publishing a calendar. There is something very unique about this one. Life is a Carnival is a bold approach to mastectomy and reconstruction education.

This 2008 calendar features photos from FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered members who have undergone bilateral mastectomy -- with or without reconstruction. To retain the anonymity of the models, they are wearing mardi gras masks.

This project is meant to celebrate life after mastectomy, to showcase many types of reconstruction and non reconstruction options in a nonthreatening and positive light. The calendar contains information about the models surgery with references included to the chapters in the Breast Reconstruction Guidebook which explains each procedure. A secondary goal of this calendar is to raise needed funds for FORCE programs.

I guess I've just assumed that breast cancer organizations happily accept every donation they receive and joyfully funnel all charitable gifts into their noble endeavors. I mean, without money and research and programs and services and education, where would we be? We'd be uninformed and lagging behind the force of this disease instead of gaining momentum on its trail. That's where we'd be.

Now, I've never assumed these organizations accept money obtained through illegal measures. But I've also never assumed they'd turn away money just because it came from a group of women whose profession and means of fundraising might be considered unacceptable. I suppose I shouldn't make assumptions. Because I seem to be wrong on all accounts.

The Breast Cancer Society of Canada has officially rejected a donation from a group of Vancouver strippers because of the controversial nature of their fundraisers. Exotic Dancers For Cancer these women call themselves, and for four years they have been raising money in honor of another dancer who lost her battle with terminal cancer.

Trina Ricketts, founder of the exotic dancer website nakedtruth.ca and recipient of the letter rejecting the donation, is shocked that people consider this contribution dirty money. And she is so bothered by this unfair judgment that she has been contacting the media and outting the Breast Cancer Society of Canada's discrimination practices. Her protests are working.

In a supportive turn of events, Ricketts has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response -- and she now has several organizations willing to accept all donations she wishes to offer.

This story is not nearly as simple as presented here. It's so much more detailed and touching and moving when told by Ricketts herself -- who happens to share her inspiring journey right here.

CORRECTION: Trina Ricketts reports that she did not seek out the media to out the Breast Cancer Society of Canada.

"The decision to go public was not in the interests of outing the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, but rather to seek out charities that would be willing to accept our donations," she said.

Two-time breast cancer survivor Tania Katan was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 21, and then again ten years later. With gutsy humor in an outlandishly candid expose, she faced cancer twice, dealt with a "supportive but neurotic family," swore off toxic girlfriends, wrote about her experiences in a book and performed a one-woman play, both called My One-Night Stand With Cancer.

Katan, who underwent a mastectomy each time she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and who appears naked above the waist in her back-of-the-book photo, ran a race to raise breast cancer awareness in the best form she thought possible -- topless. "People were racing for something very specific, to cure breast cancer, but they didn't want to see what breast cancer looks like."

On the Amazon webpage for her book, the description of My One-Night Stand With Cancer reads, "A Jewish lesbian's memoir loaded with humor. She survived to prove, perhaps, that laughter is in fact the best medicine. With lymph nodes negative and outlook positive despite lightning striking twice, this 10K runner shows great spirit and strength."

Looking for a cartoonishly risqué way to keep track of the days in 2007? Fifteen webcomic artists have created the Tastefully Done: 2007 Nude Webcomic Calendar featuring nude versions of webcomic characters, with all proceeds going to cancer research.

The calendar showcases the work of Ivan Pope, Ali Graham, Gordon McAlpin, Charles Woolbright, Chris Jones, Bryan Chojnowski, Pontus Madsen & Christian Fundin, Chris Simmons, Philip Spence, Rich Dachtera, Robert Koch, Ramón Pérez, Rob Coughler, Ryan Estrada, and of course, webcomic characters appearing in various scenarios of nudity.

From geriatric strip poker to nude bus rides, the artists realize that the calendar might not be for everyone, but it was only a matter of time before webcomic cartoon characters joined the ranks of the nude in benefiting cancer research. It's not naked librarians, hunky firefighters, naked rugby players, naked day traders, nude village women (who started the nude calendar for cancer charity phenomenon) or topless models (who decided in being different they would remain fully-clothed), but it is a one-of-a-kind calendar in the webcomic category.

You can take a peek and purchase the Tastefully Done: 2007 Nude Webcomic Calendar through Lulu's here.

Strip, Search and Save spokesperson and former surfer girl Kathy Lette shared a story of how her melanoma came to be named Bruce in the Village Voice It's Time to get Naked feature as part of an effort to raise skin cancer awareness.

A self-confessed slathered in baby oil bake in the sun tanner, Lette told the reporter, "I would say my boyfriend used to get me to cut his name out of paper and sticky-tape it to my stomach so that I would get a tan tattoo in his name. The joke was, if I ever get cancer I'll have a melanoma called Bruce.''

It was a not-so-funny joke when Lette had skin cancer surgically removed from her neck earlier this year. It was then that she remembered, in a bit of irony, the suntan tattoo joke she had told years ago.

As a skin cancer survivor, Lette has joined the Cancer Council's Strip, Search and Save campaign. The premise of the campaign is that couples sans clothing and visually check each other's body for unusual changes. With a nudge and a wink, Lette said, "Not only is it important that they do it, but it could be fun," suggesting that this exam might add spice to the couple's sex lives.

Who said cancer awareness and prevention cannot be fun? Lette certainly is not taking the stodgy position that the attitude and approach need be dreary.

In addition to the Strip, Search and Save campaign, Puberty Blues author Lette's latest novel is called How To Kill Your Husband – and other handy household hints. Of course, as she says, if you are still fond of your spouse (and I would say most of us are quite fond of our spouse) have him join you in scanning each other's skin. "The peeling is mutual," states Lette. To learn more about skin cancer and how to prevent and detect melanoma, visit Lette's Strip, Search and Save section at the Cancer Council of Australia.

Naked librarians. Naked folk singers. Middle-aged village women posing nude. As for the anything goes as long as it's going to charity, thirteen of Britain's top topless models have said enough is enough. With tongue in cheek humor, the models hold that modeling nude should be left to the professionals.

So, in a classic tipping of a sacred cow, the models have decided to put out a calendar of their own, only no one will be taking off their clothes. Instead, the models, who will be bucking the current calendar charity trend of scantily-clad amateurs, strike a professional pose fully-clothed in Calendar Girls Get Dressed For Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Referred to as glamour girls, the women appear in layered garments of woolen jumpers, scarves, stockings, coats, hats and gloves and go domestic, as opposed to the normal nightlife lifestyle most often associated to the models in the land of model-dom.

According to photographer Stuart White, "I wanted to let the glamour girls make fun of themselves. Their normal image is all to do with partying and the high life, which is why all the portraits show them finding their housework difficult."

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go to UK's Breakthrough Breast Cancer. As stated on the product page, "Calendar Girls Get Dressed For Breakthrough Breast Cancer is an affectionate tribute to the many recent calendars in which unglamorous amateurs have stripped off for worthy causes. It is NOT endorsed by the makers of the 2003 film Calendar Girls or previous films of the same name or those portrayed in them." Without endorsement, it is sure to get a chuckle. Going in the opposite direction and poking fun at yourself is a refreshing turn.

Copies of the calendar can be purchased here.

Breast cancer survivor, actress and anti-pharmaceutical advocate Suzanne Somers, author of Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones, suggests that if she had it to do over again, she would not undergo radiation treatment for breast cancer. During an interview Somers shares information on bioidentical hormones with The Desert Sun's Bruce Fessier, Somers is quoted as saying, "The whole time I was lying on that radiation table and I was so sick from it, I kept thinking, isn't it radiation that gives us cancer? I couldn't get that thought out of my mind."

At the time of her breast cancer diagnosis, Somers researched Iscador, a mistletoe extract, and chose to include the alternative therapy as part of her treatment. Somers said she refused to give up her hormones, insisting that she knew more about hormones than the doctor treating her for cancer.

Somers has critics in the medical and pharmaceutical communities, and perhaps rightly so. Manipulating hormones with bioidentical hormone therapy is not nearly as simplistic as she makes it sound, nor is cancer.

In her defense, while she does hold some unorthodox beliefs about health and cancer treatment, she readily adds that her approach to health is not something she advocates for everyone. Even with that caveat, people must be interested in what she has to say, as most of her books become bestsellers. Without a formal medical education and scientific expertise to back up what she has to say, I am not certain why so many seem to be listening.

I understand cancer is a scary diagnosis, and current treatments including chemotherapy, radiation and chemoprevention drugs are an inexact science. Not everyone diagnosed with cancer is cured. But cancer is also not a disease that allows the patient a great deal of time to experiment with various treatments.

As a breast cancer survivor, with a keen interest in cancer and cancer treatments, I believe there is a place for some alternative treatments. I also believe, in time, that some of the current conventional treatments will be replaced with more effective treatments. I am relatively certain that Suzanne Somers is a lovely woman. However, I try to chose my authority figures and the experts whose advice I value very carefully. Your thoughts?

On Friday, I had my annual OB/GYN appointment. It's the appointment known by all women for (1) its blood pressure check and humbling weigh-in, (2) the pee-in-a-cup ritual, (3) the get naked and change-into-a-paper-dress routine, (4) the finger-stick-iron-check, (5) the clinical breast exam, (6) the manual internal pelvic exam, and (7) the ever popular feet-in-stirrups Pap test. It's all so uncomfortable, so not fun. Yet it's all so necessary.

It was a visit with my OB/GYN that resulted in my breast cancer diagnosis two years ago this month. It was the clinical breast exam that confirmed the hard little lump I had found in the shower the previous day. It's what prompted my emergency mammogram a day later. It's what sent me on the wildest ride of my life. It's what keeps me going back for repeat yearly visits -- because I know if something goes wrong with my female parts, this doctor is likely the one who will make the discovery. He is likely the one who will save me from a late diagnosis of something terrible, the doctor who will set the wheels in motion for whatever comes after something terrible is detected.

I know already that (1) my blood pressure and weight are normal, (2) my urine is normal, (3) the paper dress is so not flattering, (4) my iron is normal, (5) my breasts are normal, and (6) my ovaries and uterus feel normal. I am only waiting on (7) the results of my Pap test that will reveal any abnormalities in the tissue of my cervix. This is the one test that can save me from cervical cancer or detect the disease in a stage that is completely curable. It's one of the best cancer screening tests around -- and I plan to receive it every year, year after year -- even if I have not one ounce of modesty left when it's said and done.

It's not so bad really. I'm accustomed to the rituals of the annual exam. I know the drill, know I will survive it all, know it's all critical for maintaining my health. So it's good really. Good -- compared to what could happen if something went undiscovered.

In the land down under tongues are wagging over the new Naked Rugby League calendar being sold to raise money for breast cancer charity. Seems the boys are baring it all and one of the players left little to the imagination in the position of hand to -- well -- private parts.

The NRL has gone very public over the fact they do not want to be associated with the nude shenanigans of players Johnathan Thurston, Justin Hodges, Paul Whatuira, Brent Webb, Ben Ross, Amos Roberts, Ashley Harrison, Riley Brown, Stuart Webb, Greg Bird, Michael Witt, Liam Fulton and Nick Youngquest.

Although all the players are nude, Youngquest has stirred the pot and is taking most of the heat, as he draped his hand in such a way as to reveal more than some consider good taste in nudity. The calendar's photographer Pedro Virgil insists the shots are provocative but tastefully done.

The Naked Rugby League calendar went on sale yesterday. The spokeswoman for the breast cancer foundation that the calendar will benefit has said they had nothing to do with the making of the calendar. I visited the online store, where many pink products are featured, and the Naked Rugby League calendar is not one of the featured items. If the charity does include the calendar in its online store, I will retract and update that last observation. In my opinion, seems they could have come out a wee bit stronger in their support for the calendar if they are the primary -- and only -- benefactors.

This story almost reminds me of another story earlier this year, when a woman died from breast cancer and her coworkers got together to honor her memory by raising money for breast cancer charity. Because they worked as exotic dancers, the first year they held a fundraiser they could not find a breast cancer charity who would accept the donation unless the dancers agreed to donate anonymously. The women had enough self-respect to decline the conditions for donation. The second year, a national breast cancer organization told the dancers they would proudly accept the donation from the fundraiser, and publicly announce affiliation with this group of women wanting to help with breast cancer research.

Not all London traders are signing on to pose nude for a calendar to benefit the KatCanDo charity. While reported not to be a shy and retiring group, an unnamed trader is quoted as saying he will not be publicly stripping down to the nude for a calendar. "I think I give the world enough amusement without taking my clothes off."

In 2004, the KatCanDo charity was founded by Kate Coles, who was diagnosed with colon cancer three years ago and passed away this last March. Her husband Stephen Coles assures everyone that this is a serious project that will be done with the utmost taste. Each person appearing in the calendar will be discreetly covered in all the right places.

The KatCanDo has published two other calendars, the 2005 calendar, Doctors Uncovered, and a 2006 calendar featuring drawings by children who have been treated for cancer and leukemia.

In addition, they have hosted a Charity Ball; they had runners in the Reading half-marathon and the London Marathon and five runners completed the Great North Run for the charity. KatCanDo has been chosen as the Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd Sports and Social Clubs Nominated Charity for the next year and they have been chosen as the British and Commonwealth Women's Club of Brussels British Charity for 2006. The efforts of the charity has assisted local cancer patients in a number of ways. For more information on the charity, visit KatCanDo -- and if you are a trader in London -- they still have a few open months left in the upcoming calendar.

FREEEEEDOM! is the cry made famous with Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace in the movie Braveheart. The movie stayed true to the reenactment of the Scottish warriors painting faces and chests a bright blue before battle to visually intimidate the enemy. The plant used to create the blue dye is called Woad.

While the ancient Scottish warrior Wallace met with a gruesome fate at the hands of the enemy, women in the modern world diagnosed with breast cancer might gain advantage in the war against cancer with the same plant used as an ancient blue dye in battle.

Italian researchers from the University of Bologna have discovered that the Woad plant, belonging to the same Brassicaceae plant family as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli, contains 20 times more glucobrassicin than broccoli. They also discovered that by wounding the Woad plant, they were able to increase the concentration of glucobrassicin seven times the normal level found in Woad. Glucobrassicin is known for its breast cancer-fighting abilities, and researchers are hopeful that isolating this compound will enable them to conduct clinical trials to better understand and clarify its effectiveness against cancer.

According to the Wikipedia entry on Woad, the first archaeological find of woad seeds were found in the French cave of l'Audoste, Bouches du Rhone. It is reported that Julius Caesar spoke of ancient Britons going into battle naked and using blue dye derived from Woad in face and body painting to terrify their opponents during battle. In addition, the blue dye from Woad was used as a tattooing ink and medicinally as an astringent.

I will be honest. After a double mastectomy left my chest mutilated and scarred, I worried if I would be physically attractive to a man after breast cancer surgery. It's not that I think men are shallow, it had more to do with all that cancer was taking away in my life, and I was not sure how much I would pay in the final cost of losses.

Worse yet, I wondered if simply being someone who had been diagnosed with cancer would make people run the other way. If the private conversations I have had with other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer are a true indication, these are secret fears most of us share.

We each find our own inspiration back to feeling accepted and attractive in reclaiming the every day challenges and joys of relationships and life. For me, one of the ways I found that gave me hope was watching other breast cancer survivors enter new relationships or get married. As in -- obviously it doesn't seem to matter when it comes to love how imperfect you might be physically -- cancer surgery scars and all -- or that you were someone who had cancer.

I even find inspiration in Kylie Minogue being voted the number one desired traveling companion of men in a poll conducted by British Airways. She beat out Rachel Stevens and actress Angelina Jolie for the top spot. Not bad.

Yes, I know, few of us have the attractive quality of fame, fortune and international celebrity status to carry us along, but that does not matter. The fact that Minogue was voted by men as the number one person they would most like to be seated next to on a flight just reaffirms one more time the hope factor for me.

Seriously, I am okay now, it's been a few years but I remember when this private fear hurt my heart and I wondered if cancer had stolen more from me than was obvious at the time of diagnosis. If you are newly-diagnosed and reading this, and worry and wonder privately what life will be like down the road, it only gets better and the fears and worry about sex appeal will be have been for naught. Few will run the other way.

Back in June, when Pamela Anderson stood nude in the window of fashion designer Stella McCartney's London clothes shop to bring attention to PETA, she was making a statement she would rather go nude than wear fur. Anderson chose to deliver that message in a way certain to be heard. It was an outrageous stunt but it worked -- and whether you tsk-tsk or applaud her effort, Pamela Anderson and PETA made headlines around the globe that day.

It worked for the global cosmetics company Avon in Bulgaria this week, when in a continuing effort to raise awareness for breast cancer, they launched an eye-catching public campaign using three well-known sexy celebrities of Bulgaria. Posing in a larger-than-life banner hung outside the National Art Gallery in Sofia, the three beauties stared back at passers-by with a suggestion that when the large pink ribbon covering the women in the banner in just the right places came down, the public would be in for a nude shock.

As it turns out, when the pink ribbon was pulled down, the bare-shouldered bare-legged smiling women in the poster -- television star Natalia Simeonova, pop diva Maria Ilieva and film actress Koyna Rousseva -- were holding up pink tees with a breast cancer message printed on them.

Will the public or the paparazzi ever tire of sexy or the hint of nudity or actual nudity? No -- and I am not suggesting they do. Only that this type of campaign risks becoming cliche. If I were head of a large organization with a goal to raise awareness in eye-popping ways, I would hire the brightest, most innovative and creative minds in the advertising world, and let them create something intelligent and fresh and new. But for now, Pamela Anderson and Avon know what works -- and they work it.

Celebrity Naked Chef Jamie Oliver has started a true food revolution to ban junk food and get fresh, tasty and, above all, nutritious food back on the school lunch menu. As a result of public demands for better food for England's school children -- inspired in part by Oliver's very vocal and public campaign -- government officials have announced new nutritional standards in how often school children can be served certain foods. According to the new guidelines for school lunches, school meals must be free from low quality meat products, fizzy drinks, crisps, and chocolates. Also banned is the sale of junk food at school and in vending machines. School lunch programs are required to provide at least two portions of fruits and vegetables, and to offer high quality meat, chicken or oily fish on a regular basis.

"This is a really ambitious program," Schools Minister Jim Knight told BBC radio. "It will take a long time to transform a whole culture around food and transform the health content of school meals, undoing decades of neglect." Yes, but change has to start somewhere -- and this seems a good start. Everyone talks about the problems of obesity in children and the long-term health consequences such as an increased risk for cancers later in life, but here is someone who took it on to inspire a nation to make a difference -- and appears to be succeeding. Hats off to Oliver!

When John Richard Baker, Assistant National Park Officer for the Yorkshire Dales, died in July 1998 from leukemia, his wife Annie and her best friend Chris got the ladies of the local Women’s Institute together with the idea of producing a calendar to raise money for cancer charity. Each month would feature a different woman in the women's group, doing ordinary things like making jam, flower arranging, or knitting. The traditional idea had a radical twist -- the women would appear nude. The calendar gained international attention which eventually led to the filming of the Calendar Girls movie.

When Baker was diagnosed with cancer, he began growing sunflowers and gave them to friends and family --hoping to live long enough to see them fully-bloomed. Unfortunately, he lost his life to cancer before that happened. The sunflower has become the cancer charity fundraising activities symbol for his family and friends.

Wearing bras decorated in sunflowers, the Calendar Girls, together with friends and family, are now training for London's Playtex Moonwalk, a cancer charity fundraising event in which thousands of women walk 26.2 miles through the night wearing elaborately decorated bras.  While the past efforts of the women's group have raised more than £1m total for leukemia research, this walk will be for breast cancer charity. In addition, the Calendar Girls recently launched a 2007 calendar. Profits from the calendar will continue to go to leukemia research.