October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, a time when pink becomes the hottest colour around as thousands of campaigns are launched all over the world.

Each year, numerous celebrities band together to help spread the message through these campaigns. For many of them, the campaigns are personal. Some have had a mother, sister, aunt or friend suffer from the illness, while others are actually breast cancer survivors themselves.

Here are a few celebrities who are doing their part, while sharing their stories with the rest of the world:

Paloma Faith
Up and coming British singer and actress Paloma Faith nursed her mother through a double mastectomy operation. Five years on, she spoke about it for the first time at the Breast Cancer Care’s Pink Fridays fundraiser in Britain, a movement which encourages people to hold tea parties in October in aid of the charity.

“I’m my mother’s only child and I became her sole carer for that time,” said Paloma in an interview. “I was at the hospital with her every day and I had to look after her for two weeks after the operation, and go and bathe her every day.”

Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, a disease she is quite familiar with. Her mother, Nancy Lee Priddy, is a breast cancer survivor.

“I was just shaking and then also immediately, I had to go into ‘take-care-of-business-mode’, which included a change to a more healthy diet,” she said when she was first diagnosed.

Christina Applegate

Since 2003, Christina has been a spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer education and research.

She also appeared on a television special entitled Stand Up To Cancer, designed to raise funds for breast cancer research.

After she was diagnosed, Christina underwent a double masectomy and emerged cancer-free; she is scheduled to undergo reconstructive surgery soon.

Yasmin Bleeth
Baywatch babe Yasmin Bleeth was only 20 when her mother, Carina Bleeth, died from inflammatory breast cancer at the age of 47.

Yasmin has been quoted as saying she never accepted that her mother was dying until she took her last breath. It took the actress six long years before finally opening up about it.

“I am not an activist. If Carina hadn’t died of this, I wouldn’t have done what I’m doing. She just didn’t think it could happen to her. Mum was in denial. My mum took very good care of herself, watched what she ate, and espoused a healthy lifestyle. I really have to stand behind what I’ve said. I had a mammogram at age 26,” said Yasmin, now 41.

She was the 1998 spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraising campaign. Her primary message to women was to pay attention to their bodies; her mother was initially misdiagnosed by a doctor who thought that she was going through early menopause.

Yasmin also donated the proceeds of her US$10,000 (RM35,000) win on the game show Celebrity Jeopardy to breast cancer research.

Anastascia
Vocal powerhouse Anastacia was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35.

Doctors discovered the cancer when she had breast reduction surgery.

She immediately started radiotherapy, and underwent surgery, too. The experience of treating her breast cancer led to her establishing the Anastacia Fund.

The fund, in partnership with Estée Lauder (a brand known for its international-scale breast cancer awareness campaign with actress Elizabeth Hurley as its spokesperson) helps raise awareness about breast cancer and the importance of mammograms to women aged 35 and under.

The singer then began selling her stage clothing on eBay, donating a portion of the proceedings to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Kylie Minogue
When she was 37, Kylie Minogue’s career was flourishing with her albums selling like hot cakes. She was also scheduled to go on a world tour. Then, she discovered she had breast cancer.

But after months of treatment throughout 2006 and 2007, Kylie’s cancer went into remission and she has been doing fine ever since.

Apart from the establishment of a breast cancer fund (which raised more than AUD8,000 – RM24,000 – in its first 24 hours), the news of her illness was so widespread that thousands of women went for mammograms in Australia.

Kylie Minogue

Doctors have stated that the number of mammographies in Australia rose by 40% after that, something they refer to as the “Kylie Effect”.

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