North Carolina State women's basketball coach Kay Yow will soon take a leave of absence so she can fight breast cancer -- for the third time.

Yow, 64, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987. The cancer returned two years ago, and she was treated with hormone therapy and radiation. Just recently, doctors discovered the cancer was progressing. And they have already started treatment with chemotherapy and new targeted biologic therapies.

This is Yow's 32nd season as the head coach of the Wolfpack women's team. Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, Yow also coached the U.S. women's team in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The team took home the gold medal.

Associate head coach Stephanie Glance will serve as interim coach while Yow takes on her cancer opponent. "I have every confidence in my coaching staff to continue the development of this outstanding group of young women," Yow said.

Olympic Gold Medallist figure skater and breast cancer survivor Peggy Fleming spoke at a Surviving and Thriving luncheon sharing her breast cancer experience. Fleming told the audience of breast cancer survivors attending the luncheon that the breast cancer diagnosis was a shock considering her identity as an athlete was based on health.

After the shock wore off, she gathered her inner resources and faced breast cancer with the same skills that had taken her to the heights of athletic excellence and accomplishment.

Fleming took on breast cancer as a competition she was intent on winning. "Cancer doesn't care who you are or how well you take care of yourself," she said. "It just happens."

As an eight-year breast cancer survivor, Fleming currently works as an ice skating commentator on ABC and ESPN. She tells her story as a way to inspire and enlighten other women facing a breast cancer diagnosis and breast cancer survivors living beyond breast cancer. To read more about her appearance at the Surviving and Thriving luncheon, read Former skater describes fight against cancer by Laura Hensley.

One of the ways I have been touched by, and admire, breast cancer survivors is the willingness they have to share their personal breast cancer story in the context of a larger life of self discovery. In 2000, Fleming had her book published, The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories, in which she tells her story from the time of life as a little girl being raised by a disciplinarian father who drank and domineering mother who controlled those around her, to her marriage, her skating career and her treatment for breast cancer. As a breast cancer survivor, the strength and hope I took from breast cancer survivors as a newly-diagnosed breast cancer patient sustained me and nurtured me during the most difficult point in my life, and will remain an immeasurable gift of healing.

Olympic rower Andrew Sudduth, who rowed on eight national and Olympics teams in the 1980s, won four medals at the World Rowing Championships, and was a five-time winner in singles sculling at the Head of the Charles regatta, has died of pancreatic cancer.

At Cisco Systems, he helped develop server technology.

"He was technically one of the most brilliant people I ever worked with," said Brian Shorey, a friend who was Sudduth's boss at Cisco Systems Inc., where he worked until recently. "His mind went a mile a minute and it was tough to keep up with him."

In 1988, Sudduth was the first to notify the world that a computer virus was sweeping the fledgling internet. He was 44.

The 2006 York Tour de Pink, a cycling tour fundraiser for the Young Survival Coalition, sponsored by York Peppermint Patties and The Hershey Company, is looking for riders to join the celebrity lineup for this year's event. Departing from Times Square in New York City, participants of the tour will be joining four of North America's top cyclists -- Kristin Armstrong of TEAm Lipton, Mari Holden of T-Mobile Women's Team, Dede Barry of World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist and Michael Barry of Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team for a four-day ride to the Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

According to the 2006 York Tour de Pink rider's page, it will be a picturesque yet challenging route across central New Jersey and southern Pennsylvania with professional support, including SAG vans, mechanics and medical personnel, rest stops every fifteen miles and catered meals. And I think this is important because it is followed by an exclamation mark -- there will be hotel lodging and no camping out. First thing I thought was -- ahh, hot shower soft bed -- deserving of an exclamation mark.

The 2006 York Tour de Pink benefits the Young Survival Coalition, the only international network of breast cancer survivors, medical professionals and supporters dedicated to young women affected by breast cancer. They are looking for 100 riders to join the tour.