Cancer Research UK is about to increase its wealth -- once a signed honeymoon photograph of the Prince and Princess of Wales is auctioned.

The photograph reportedly came from an unnamed member of the Royal Household and had been purchased by a collector. Taken on the Royal Estate at Balmoral just days after the wedding of Charles and Diana, it's Diana's signature prominently displayed on the photograph -- it reads, Lots of Love, Diana.

The auction, organized by a businesswomen whose lost her mother-in-law to breast cancer, will take place on June 9 at a charity ball at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square. It is expected to sell for £3,000.

I have dense breasts. And ever since the surgeon who performed my breast reduction surgery more than 10 years ago told me about the composition of my breast tissue, I have been a bit obsessed with how my breasts feel. Good thing -- because I ended up with breast cancer two years ago as a result of my own at-home monitoring. And now I wonder if my cancer was influenced by the density characterizing the tissue that fills my breasts.

Canadian researchers are reporting in a groundbreaking study that women with dense breasts, like me, are five times more likely to develop breast cancer than whose whose breasts have a lot of fatty tissue. It's long been knows that dense breasts inhibit the effectiveness of X-ray mammograms -- and perhaps delay diagnosis -- but now it's clear that breast density is a risk factor all on its own.

I was busy during my treatment for breast cancer -- really busy. My two little boys kept me in an always-moving, rarely-resting state and while I sometimes felt desperate for a little down time, I am mostly thankful for the crazy pace that kept me focused, kept me occupied, kept me distracted. Staying busy helped pass the time during a phase of my life when moments could crawl at a snail's pace.

According to the Sun newspaper, Kylie Minogue searched for something to keep her occupied during her own breast cancer treatment. What she found -- writing -- has turned her into an author. Minogue's new children's book -- Kylie: The Showgirl Princess -- which she created with her partner Olivier Martinez, kept her mind off her treatments and on the future. And the future she set her sights on during treatment has almost arrived as Minogue's book is set for release this week. Her book, that includes artwork sent to her after her diagnosis from children all over the world, will be on shelves in London today.

The Princess Khrystle and Prince Michael Foundation was founded to extend a hand of sympathy and offer a shoulder of support for children facing cancer.

Princess Khrystle is Khrystle Marie Lopez, who lost her young life to an aggressive brain cancer at the age of 12. Prince Michael is named for the young boy Khrystle made friends with when they were both battling cancer. The foundation was launched two months before Khrystle died, and the first act of the foundation was Khrystle donating her own toys to the local hospital.

Since 1999, her mother Yolanda Lopez, has carried on the foundation in her daughter's memory and to keep her daughter's spirit alive."Khrystle came to show me what love really was, what it truly meant," says Yolanda Lopez. "And even after her transition I wanted to continue that lesson. I knew it was a mission she had given me."

Yolanda wrote a bilingual children's book called Princess Khrystle and The Monster Cancer, an illustrated fairy-tale story explaining brain cancer in a way children can understand. The book is self-published and available at the Princess Khrystle and Prince Michael Foundation site.

Photo: Khrystle who inspired the foundation and book named because of her.

In a universal health system, care is rationed by medical priority when determining where health dollars will be spent and what types of treatment will be covered. In the UK, a debate is taking place between British scientists who are recommending that unproven or disproved complementary therapies not be funded and therapists of complementary medicine who argue that many of the alternative therapies have been proven effective and should be funded for patients who can benefit from such therapies. This has opened up a whole new discussion in defining exactly what alternative or complementary therapies are and what place they have in modern medical practice.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles, a strong advocate of alternative therapies and organic foods, spoke to World Health Assembly members of the World Health Organization about the need to consider making better use of traditional therapies, particularly acupuncture and herbal medicines, to improve health care around the world.

"I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasizes the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force in the world,'' Charles said. "This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions."

Prince Charles is concerned that if we do not recognize the wisdom and value of the past, much of that knowledge will be lost. Putting aside politics, monarchy and scandal, I am gaining more respect for the Prince of Wales the more I learn about his perspectives concerning health and the environment.