Last Tuesday night, I watched Greta Van Susteren of Fox News' On The Record as she interviewed Brittany Lietz, Miss Maryland 2006. Greta asked Brittany what her Miss Maryland job entails. Brittany told Greta her full-time job is to represent her platform -- skin cancer.

Brittany didn't choose just any topic for her platform. She chose one that is entirely personal.

Skin cancer has left more than 20 scars on Brittany's body. One, on her back, marks the site where a stage two melanoma was removed when she was just 19 years old. It presented as a mole, a little smaller than a nickel, she says. In all likelihood, the cancer was caused by two years of tanning bed use. Brittany says she probably tanned every day for two years. Her pursuit of bronzed skin began when she was 17 and wanted a tan for her prom. It ended after doctors told her she had cancer.

Jimmy Walker, former Providence College basketball star and first pick in the 1967 NBA draft, died Monday of lung cancer. He was 63.

Walker played three seasons at Providence and held a school record with a total of 2,045 scored points. His record stood for 38 years. Ryan Gomes surpassed his total in 2005.

"He was an amazing phenomenon," says Jim Cox, who played with Walker in 1964. "That he ended up at Providence College was a remarkable development. He was so good, so blessed. He was ahead of his time."

Walker, father of NBA player Jalen Rose -- part of Michigan's Fab Five of the 1990s -- was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and averaged 16.7 points a game in nine NBA seasons. At one time, Walker and Rose held the NCAA Division I record for most career points by a father-son duo.

The way I see it, there are two threads common to the journeys of many cancer patients and survivors -- the desire to hear stories of others walking in similar shoes and the desire to be heard.

These threads have definitely woven themselves throughout my own cancer experience. When first diagnosed, I searched long and hard for personal stories of women struggling with and conquering breast cancer. Once I was well on my road to recovery, I wanted others to hear my story, in hopes it would resonate with those looking for the same comfort I once craved.

Won't you consider sharing your story too? It might just help you. It will surely help others.

Think about this:

On the Discovery Health website, an offer awaits you.

"We would love to hear your story," reads a portion of the site. "So would the many others who share your relationship to Cancer."

If you are at least 18 years of age and have a few minutes to spare, simply call 888-890-6339 and follow the instructions to record your voice. When all stories are ready to be published in podcast format, an online notice will be posted.

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Photographs tell powerful stories. They depict people and objects and landscapes and emotions in deep, meaningful ways. They capture permanent visual representations of moments in life. They paint pictures that even the most well-crafted words could not reproduce.

When Mary Ann Nilan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the age of 40, she knew her story must be told -- through pictures. So she asked a photographer to record it all, stating, "I hope the pictures make the road easier for other women." The rest is history.

She calls it a photo essay and titles it The Diary of Healing. For 17 frames -- with photographs dominating each space and text kept to a minimum -- Nilan shares her journey that began with the discovery of breast cancer in both breasts and several lymph nodes, the journey that took her through chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and reconstruction with implants.

Her photographs document significant stops on her physical and emotional trek. They show her bald head, the wig she wore only once and then let hang on a hook, the scars that crossed her flat chest after surgery, an injection of saline that painfully pierced the skin of her new breasts, her children measuring her hair as it grows in after chemotherapy. The photographs are both hopeful and chilling. They are breast cancer. They are more than words could ever capture.

Technology has come a long way over the years -- and now the technology behind digital mammography is allowing life-saving screenings for the toughest patients to diagnose with breast cancer.

This is no small technological breakthough. It is a critical component for lowering the breast cancer death rate the American Cancer Society reports has declined 2.3 percent each year between 1990 and 2002. Since breast cancer is a treatable disease if caught early, digital mammography will up the odds of survival for women with this disease.

Digital mammography operates according to a computer-based technique that allows for digital manipulation of a breast X-ray. It exceeds the capability of film mammography -- and is much like the comparison between digital photography versus film photography. Both work. But one works better.

Studies show digital mammograms have a lot to offer. They detect tumors better in young women with dense breast tissue, for example. They allow for ease of storage and retrieval of images. And they can easily become part of a woman's electronic medical record.

There are still benefits of traditional mammography and women are still urged to use this less expensive option. They are also urged to conduct self-breast exams and to report for clinical exams with physicians. It's the whole package that contributes to comprehensive breast health, not just one isolated test. When used in combination with all other screening methods, digital mammography makes for a more accurate overall picture.

The University of Miami's first basketball All-American and member of the school's Athletic Hall of Fame died Friday of esophageal and colon cancer. Dick Hickox, a 5-6 guard who led the 1959-60 Hurricanes to a 23-3 record and a No. 8 ranking -- still the school's highest -- was 68 years old.

Hickox never meant to play basketball at UM. He went to Coral Gables with a friend who was homesick and who threatened to leave unless coach Bruce Hale brought in Hickox and a another friend. Hale agreed -- and had no idea what he was getting. Hickox averaged 22.1 points that season and went on to make history. He was named second All-American, alongside Providence guard Lenny Wilkens. Hickox drew crowds of 5,000 and celebrities -- like actors Burt Reynolds, George Hamilton, and then-Cassius Clay -- often cheered him on from under the basket.

Hickox spent his adult years working in the Dade County Public School system and was the business manager of the South Miami High athletic department. In March, he attended the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., and received a Legends Award. It was the best basketball weekend of his life, one friend said.

Hickox is survived by his wife, his son, and his daughter.

Dealing with cancer in private is hard. Dealing with cancer publicly can be even harder. CEO Donna McAleer -- the founding executive and public face of the large, growing health care company Elant -- knows this firsthand. She just recently went public with her breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis after rumors of her demise started circulating. McAleer set the record straight, announcing that she is doing just fine. While her experience has been frightening, she is surviving well -- and she wants the public to know. She has run Elant for 20 years and wants to dispel any myths about its stability. Apple CEO Steve Jobs faced the same public drama in 2004 after surgery for pancreatic cancer and subsequent drops in Apple stock. Jobs recovered -- and so did the stock -- but the speculation that swirled was powerful and potentially damaging. Just as it was that same year when Kraft Foods was criticized for withholding details of its CEO's hospitalization.

There is some debate in the business world about all of this -- about whether or not executive illnesses should be disclosed. For public companies, one opinion is that there is an obligation to respond quickly to the public. In a private company, it's up to the CEO. McAleer's Elant is not a publicly traded company and there is no worry about stock price -- but her decision to reveal her personal health crisis was the right thing to do, she says. "I have an obligation to share this news in how I progress, in order to educate and make sure people aren't frightened by it," she said in reference to the memo she sent to her 700 employees and community groups too.

I'm open and honest about my own cancer experience because I believe it can help others -- and it helps me to talk about it too. So I'm a fan of a forthcoming approach in the workplace. I appreciate that some fear repercussions that might result from such a disclosure. But honesty may be the best policy -- for prevention of rumors and addressing worry and raising awareness too. McAleer seems to agree as she takes this opportunity to speak up, to encourage women to seek mammograms and to follow up on them.

I've been keeping a journal ever since I was first diagnosed with breast cancer. I first wrote by hand in a pink fabric-covered book, sprinkled with multi-colored polka dots. It looked feminine -- which is why I bought it -- and it's vibrance made me feel inspired, motivated, eager to write down the dreaded details of the beginning of my journey. Then I stopped writing in this book and began typing my words in an on-line journal -- a blog. My husband designed the presentation of it, with a pink banner that serves as the backdrop for the title -- my Breast Cancer blog. My first entry was completed on December 21, 2004 and I am still chronicling my journey here. I am also writing for this site -- the Cancer Blog -- and I write whenever and wherever else I can record my words. I do it because it helps me process information in a quiet, calming, introspective way. It soothes me, helps me work through panic and anxiety, helps me heal, and helps me chart my progress. When I look back at what I've written, I realize how far I've come -- or haven't come -- and it helps me move forward. I recommend journaling for everyone, and I recommend these seven simple suggestions for getting started.

Safeway, a major-chain grocery store, announced that it has raised a whopping $5.1 million dollars during its Prostate Cancer Awareness Month fundraiser in June. In just six years, Safeway has raised more than $17.8 million dollars to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation for prostate cancer awareness and research.

In addition to the traditional solicited customer donations at checkstands they do each year, Safeway also attributes its fundraising success this year to Safeway employees who held parking lot barbecues, carnivals, book sales, and raffles.

As I said in an earlier post about Safeway's fundraising abilities, they are one of the most effective organizations to raise donations for cancer charity. Because it is seldom possible to get out of a grocery store without spending several hundred dollars, adding one more dollar for a worthy cause is easy to agree to do.

There is still time to register, volunteer or donate for the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer which will take place in several cities across the United States -- Los Angeles, New York, Charlotte, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco. This weekend walk that extends over two days and 39 miles will take place as soon as September 2006 in Los Angeles and as late as July 2007 in Denver. This walk, designed to benefit medically underserved women and men -- allowing them treatment they otherwise would not receive -- also funds research teams as they continue their quest for a cure. With Prevention magazine as the national sponsor and other official sponsors such as Reebok, the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer has made quite a mark already. This year's Chicago walk raised a record-breaking $8.2 million and tracked the steps of more than 3,500 participants. There is no better proof than this -- in my opinion -- that walking can make quite a difference.

In the second part of the two-part exclusive interview with ABC's Good Morning America Diane Sawyer, Sheryl Crow shares she is cancer-free and feeling great as a breast cancer survivor. The diagnosis of breast cancer came as a surprise as she is not a smoker and has no family history of the disease. She received enormous support from her family and friends during treatment, whom she refers to as "this incredible tribe of women." Before Dana Reeve died of lung cancer, she gave Crow advice on dealing with the emotional aspects of being a newly-diagnosed cancer patient and dealing with the recent separation from Lance Armstrong by telling her that the only way to go through grief was to grieve.

Crow talked about meditating and changing her diet. "I kind of went into a full-on Eskimo diet, where I ate a lot of salmon. In fact, I'm salmoned out of my brains ... and really green vegetables, just eating really clean, organic food. Listen, I haven't had a doughnut in I can't remember when."

Breast cancer forced Crow into an introspective place of self-realization in facing and overcoming fears -- and the wisdom that comes with that when she said she tried to at least address her fears and not be overcome by them. "The fear of things not always working out. You come to a point in your life where you realize it's not my job to prove to my parents or to my record label or to the world or to my lover that I matter. The fact is that you matter."

"It's not a good place to be concerned with always being right with everybody, always pleasing people, because ultimately you wind up betraying yourself a lot."

Crow shared that she sees her breast cancer diagnosis and being a cancer survivor as part of life's deepening experiences where obstacles are removed and opportunities come in.

Last Friday night, Crow joined the Dave Matthews Band in a concert at Fenway Park. But before she went onstage -- in part of giving back as a cancer survivor --  she made an unannounced surprise visit to Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to visit children with cancer at the Jimmy Fund Clinic.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have boarded the American Academy of Dermatology, AAD, vessel to join forces in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most skin cancer screenings performed in a single day. On May 6, AAD and local dermatologists are hoping to set a world record for the most skin cancer screenings in a single day by asking everyone to participate in a free day of skin cancer screening. The three main locations are New York City; South Street Seaport, Washington, DC; Union Station Mall and Chicago Navy Pier. The AAD world record webpage provides a map showing locations in each state where free skin cancer screenings will take place.

But even if it wasn't free, getting screened for skin cancer is a smart move for pirates and landlubbers alike who spend many hours in the sun. More than one million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed this year and nearly 11,000 people will die from skin cancer. With early detection and diagnosis, 95 percent of skin cancer can be cured. The Pirates organization has agreed to be screened for skin cancer by local dermatologists this summer as part of the Play Smart When It Comes to the Sun program, a public service partnership with Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association.