I'm just waiting for the call -- the call that prompts my first visit with any number of newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients who want someone to lend an ear, a shoulder, and a few good tips for steering through a scary journey.

I am a new American Cancer Society Reach to Recovery volunteer, trained this past Saturday and ready to help others who are slipping into the shoes I started wearing two years ago. I was first a recipient of this program -- designed to match new breast cancer patients with veteran survivors through face-to-face visits -- and I know well the comfort that comes from the support of someone not so overwhelmed by cancer. So now it's my turn to offer the comfort. And I am oh so ready.

I am armed with literature, communication techniques, gift bags for my patients, and my own official volunteer pin. And while I am a bit anxious about how my first meeting will go, I learned on Saturday that my mere presence will be enough to calm the women whose lives I am about to touch.

There is no better vision for someone just diagnosed with breast cancer than a healthy, happy woman who happens to be surviving the same disease. And so it is hope that I will spread and my unspoken portrayal of life after cancer that will inspire these women. My words will be icing on the cake. It's me these women want to see. And it's these women I want to see as I begin to reach to recovery -- a recovery I suspect will largely be my own.

The Y-ME Breast Cancer Organization is based in Chicago. Their mission is to ensure, through information, empowerment and peer support, that no one faces breast cancer alone.

Y-ME does not raise money for breast cancer research. The organization is here today for those who can't wait for tomorrow's cure. The Y-ME national breast cancer hotline is the only 24/7 call center operated by trained peer counselors who are breast cancer survivors. The hotline takes more than 40,000 calls per year. Y-ME counselors do not give medical advice but give emotional support and information about breast cancer, procedures and treatment options.

The organization was founded in 1978 by the late Ann Marcou and Mimi Kaplan. They were two breast cancer survivors who sought to provide support for fellow breast cancer patients and loved ones. Nearly 30 years later, Y-ME is a premier resource for breast cancer information and services, all provided completely free of charge.

Y-ME Hotline: 1-800-221-2141 or 1-800-986-9505 (Spanish).

To find out more about Y-ME's local affiliates, support programs and services click here.

Kobi, the Labrador retriever trained to smell cancer, died of complications from the chemotherapy treatments he was undergoing for lymphoma. Kobi was diagnosed with cancer in February, only three weeks before his death. One of the first dogs to be trained to detect cancer through smell, he became famous this month when the Pine Street Foundation research study findings were published in the March issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies.

Scientific evidence indicates that a dog's extraordinary ability to detect scent can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls. The clinical implications of a dog's keen ability of smell first came to light in the case report of a dog alerting its owner to the presence of a melanoma by constantly sniffing the skin lesion. Subsequent studies published in major medical journals confirmed the ability of trained dogs to detect both melanomas and bladder cancers.

The study Kobi was involved in, led by Michael McCulloch of the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, California, was the first to test whether dogs could detect cancers only by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer patients. When detecting samples of lung cancer, the dogs had a 99 percent accuracy rate, and when looking for breast cancer, the success rate was 88 percent. Dogs are called man's best friend. In the field of cancer research, Kobi made an exceptionally good friend, and the contribution he made in showing the world the profound ability of dogs to aid in the health and welfare of man only proves the title is well deserved. Goodbye Kobi, and thank you.