OK, we all know young women get breast cancer. But the way some talk about the pair -- young women and the deadly disease -- it would seem finding a young one living with this type of cancer is like locating that needle in a haystack. Many a young woman -- like me -- have heard doctors and nurses and technicians and family and friends remark, "you are too young for the disease," and then dismiss cancer suspicions as needless worry.

The median age for women diagnosed with breast cancer is 65. But think about this fact, published in the Spring/Summer edition of Beyond: Live & Thrive After Breast Cancer.

More than 240,000 women in the United States age 40 and under are living with breast cancer. Each year in this country, more than 14,000 women 40 years old and younger are diagnosed with breast cancer, says Boston oncologist Ann Partridge, M.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

That's a lot of young women. That's a lot of breast cancer. And yet, mammograms still are not recommended for women under the age of 40.

Tomorrow, the second issue of Beyond: Live & Thrive After Breast Cancer hits newsstands. And I, for one, can't wait to pick up a copy of the Spring/Summer edition of this positively powerful publication.

If you read the first issue -- the Fall/Winter magazine released in October -- you know what this glossy book has to offer. There are personal stories and interviews, shared wisdom and sound advice. There are exercise tips and health tips and survival tips. There are stories about chemo brain and fertility and relationships. There is information about breast cancer research and resources and products that are tried and true.

I want to tell you so much more -- but really, I want you find out for yourself just how moving and soothing this magazine can be.

So plan to get your copy -- tomorrow -- and tell all your friends to do the same. If you need a gift for a loved one newly diagnosed or someone who has long survived this disease, try this on for size. Buy a few copies and donate them to your favorite doctors' offices -- a fresh magazine can do wonders for any waiting room. Share one with a neighbor, a relative, a new acquaintance.

Do what you can, will you -- to both reap the benefits of this solid source of inspiration and help sustain the life of this magazine? Because magazines are only as strong as the readers who embrace them. And trust me, this is one catch we cannot afford to lose.

The second issue of the magazine Beyond: Live & Thrive After Breast Cancer will hit newsstands March 20.

The magazine, one of many targeting individuals with manageable conditions and diseases, such as allergies, heart disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, stands out as an upbeat, positive, feel-good package of information and inspiration.

University of Mississippi journalism professor Samir Husni says magazines of this sort that succeed are the ones offering up a good dose of chicken soup for the soul. This is definitely a magazine good for the soul.

Beyond editor Martha Miller Johnson calls the magazine a purveyor of hope and information, a source of reliable facts, figures, and features for the growing community of survivors living with breast cancer. Beyond is for "the women who has been through her initial treatment and now sees her life through a different prism," says Johnson.

"Her body's changed, her skin's changed. To her, it's not a death sentence; it's a condition she just has to live with. More and more women are living with breast cancer."

The soon-to-be-released publication spotlights breast cancer survivor Deanna Favre with husband Brett Favre and includes stories about breast cancer and black women, chemotherapy and weight gain, and the most important questions to ask your doctor.

Why pick up a copy of Beyond's Spring/Summer issue this March 20? Because breast cancer attacks so many aspects of our well-being, says one survivor of the disease.

"It's your identity, it's your sexuality, it's your womanhood. Fertility. For many of us, it throws us into menopause early," she says. "Every aspect of your emotional and psychological well-being is impacted by cancer and the treatment. So that kind of puts it in its own category, I think. So you combine that with the fact that there are so many women going through it, and I think you do have a market there for something like this."

I couldn't have said it better.

The magazine Beyond: Live and Thrive After Breast Cancer made its public debut on September 19 when it arrived on the shelves of bookstores and grocery stores across the United States. And the magazine -- created to help breast cancer survivors nurture their physical and emotional health -- has caused quite a stir already.

Readers of a previous Cancer Blog post introducing the magazine say they can't get enough it and can't wait for the next issue. Contributing Editor Martha Miller Johnson says it's been a crazy month for the magazine team. She reports that the magazine is selling incredibly well, that she is receiving the most amazing e-mails from a wonderful group of women. The Des Moines Register and Connecticut Post both have done big stories on the magazine and in the midst of the flurry of success, work has already begun on the next and second issue that will hit newsstands on March 20, 2007.

Beyond is published by Meredith Special Interest Media twice per year in Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer editions. Currently, subscriptions are not available, but the magazine is available all across America and can also be purchased on-line.

It's no surprise this magazine has caught the attention of people everywhere. It's a timely, colorful, glossy breast cancer handbook. It's chock full of candid stories, recent research, and helpful hints. It's a breast cancer community that is inspiring, hopeful, and completely comforting.

There's a bit of breast cancer news in just about every magazine out there -- news about treatments and protocols and studies, news about celebrity diagnoses, news about lives lost to breast cancer and lives conquering breast cancer, news that is scattered here and there and everywhere. But now, there is a magazine all about breast cancer -- and just about breast cancer. All sorts of breast cancer wisdom is conveniently packaged into one slick, glossy publication that debuted on newsstands yesterday, September 19.

Beyond: Live & Thrive After Breast Cancer is a semi-annual publication from Meredith Special Interest Media, part of the Meredith Corporation -- a leading media and marketing company and home to magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, and Fitness. Meredith's new breast cancer venture provides women living with the disease -- and those who may one day encounter it -- with support and with the latest information on treatment and recovery.

The Fall/Winter 2006 premiere issue of Beyond features a cover story about Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, a survivor forging ahead into a life beyond breast cancer. Also filling the pages are inspiring real-life profiles and stories, nutritional advice, up-do-date medical information, fashion tips, the Pink Pages -- a resource guide that details upcoming races and products that support breast cancer -- and much more.

Behind the scenes of this issue is an advisory board of leading experts in the breast cancer field. Experts include Susan Brown, the health manager at Susan G. Komen Foundation; Carolyn M. Kaelin, director of Comprehensive Breast Health Center and breast cancer survivor; and Lillie Shockney, Administrative Director at Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer.

If there is one theme common to women surviving breast cancer, it must be the desire to live beyond the control of this life-threatening and life-changing illness, to recapture an existence that resembles something normal, to embark on a journey outside the confines of cancer. Tips, techniques, strategies, and inspiration for accomplishing these feats are printed on the pages of this new magazine that is sure to reach its intended audience -- that today includes two million women who are living with breast cancer.

Kids can be so positive and encouraging, even in the face of sickness. Now today my kids have just a simple sickness -- nothing life-threatening -- that I'm sure will pass in a day or so. They are throwing up every content of their little tummies -- even sips of water -- and they are pale and lethargic and run-down. But still, they have hope for a brighter tomorrow. This morning, five-year-old Joey said to me while resting in my bed and just after he threw up , "this is just the good getting rid of the bad." He went on to explain how the good in our bodies knows when to push the bad out. And this is what is happening to him today, he said. He is throwing up the bad so the good can take over. Simple. Easy. Makes sense.

I never saw my own sickness like this. Instead of visualizing chemotherapy as a good agent that kills bad cells, I was repulsed by the horrific liquids that poisoned my body. I knew of people who were able to turn chemotherapy into a Pac-Man game -- with Pac Man chomping away at the cancer cells and leaving nothing but healthy cells to thrive. And I knew people who were relieved to feel sick because it meant the chemotherapy was working. I never saw it like this -- although I do know that chemotherapy may have saved me from a life with cancer. I was discouraged by chemotherapy. I had a negative attitude about it, and I had to really gear up for all of my infusions. I still -- more than one year later -- cannot eat anything I ate on my chemo days. The mere thought of these foods makes me feel ill.

A pediatrician friend of mine told me that kids with cancer tend to be positive. There are a few old souls, she said, but for the most part, they continue to tackle life with spirit and adventure and simplicity. Like my boys today who are peacefully napping at the moment so everything good in their bodies can come back with a vengeance.