The following post is one of a series of posts appearing Monday through Friday on The Cancer Blog. This feature -- Today, I am grateful -- allows me to share with readers my appreciation for all the treasures in my life, both big and small. In my post-cancer world, I find It healing for my soul to be mindful of the good in my life. It is my pleasure to share my gratitude with you.

When I think about how much my mom rescued me during my breast cancer treatment, I always land at the fact that she watched my little boys for 35 days in a row while I transported myself to and from radiation therapy. That wasn't all she did -- she also accompanied me to surgery, sat with me during chemotherapy treatments, parked herself by my bedside when I was hospitalized, dried my tears, fed me, hugged me, encouraged me, and loved me.

My mom helped me survive cancer. She is my hero.

Today, I am grateful for my mom.

He's was an unconventional hero but a hero nonetheless. Jake, a courageous black lab who spent the days following 9/11 burrowing through smoking debris to find survivors has died of cancer at the age of 12, after one last walk with his owner, Mary Flood.

Jake was bred trained to be a rescue dog -- he himself was rescued from the streets where he had been abandoned with a broken leg and a dislocated hip. But regardless, he proved himself as a hero when the world changed at the blink of an eye.

Though 9/11 has been linked to a rare form of cancer, it's thought that the reason for Jake's diagnosis and death was simply old age.

Writer Jeph Lobe has been working through the stages of grief in the most recent issues of Marvel Comics. You see, Captain America has been gunned down. And his buddies -- Wolverine, the Avengers, Iron Man, and Spider-Man -- are battling with denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. The whole story will be revealed when the latest issue, Fallen Son, hits newsstands July 5th, the day after Independence Day.

Loeb, also an executive producer for NBC's Heroes, chose his storyline to represent current politics.

"Part of it grew out of the fact that we are a country that's at war, we are being perceived differently in the world," he says. "He wears the flag and he is assassinated -- it's impossible not to have it at least be a metaphor for the complications of present day."

Survivorship is the new cancer buzz word -- and what an important word it is. Once left to each individual to define, manage, and transcend, survivorship is now recognized as a distinct phase of cancer recovery -- just as important, and maybe even more so, than diagnosis and treatment.

Linda Griggs, a 13-year breast cancer survivor, clearly remembers the day her chemotherapy ended. With her therapy complete, her hair growing back, and her medical team sending her off to have a nice life, she thought she'd be fine. But she wasn't.

Three months after her last dose of chemotherapy, Griggs was depressed, consumed with worry about how her cancer might come back. And she realized that the end of treatment is not really the end. It's just the beginning.

Griggs told her doctor about her anxiety, about how she was just trying to make it to her next three-month-check up. When her doctor told her, "that's not living," something clicked for Griggs who instantly decided to start living -- really living.

Surviving is about self-nurturing, says Griggs, who has created a kit to help others survive cancer. On her website, she writes that there are a couple of other breast cancer survivor kits out there -- containing tissues, herbal teas, meditation tapes, medical appointment books, and breast cancer resource materials.

"This is not that," she says of her kit that focuses on the emotional upheaval cancer creates.

Griggs' kit is full of hands-on creative materials -- like an inner child notebook, complete with magic markers for journaling and expressing emotions. If you're angry, you can write down angry thoughts. If you're sad, write what makes you sad. Save the pages, tear them up, burn them, do what you wish -- but allow your emotions to flow, Griggs says.

The kit also includes a wooden box with instructions on how to create a healing shrine, a copy of Griggs' non-fiction account of the first five years of her cancer journey, and so much more.

Griggs, who also teaches healing workshops, guides others to understand cancer as a hero's quest. She says when something happens to us -- death, divorce, disease -- we are receiving a call to adventure. All bet's are off. We must start fresh, gather our spirit guides, collect ourselves, dive into the underworld, overcome, and then emerge full of wisdom of growth.

Griggs has emerged -- full of her own wisdom and growth. She is a hero -- on a quest to help others survive a disease that threw her way off track for way too long.

In space, zero gravity causes hair to increase in volume, get curly and float. A woman astronaut with long hair is encouraged to pull back their hair into a ponytail. Astronaut and Navy commander Suni Williams had a plan before she left Earth on the current space shuttle mission, to cut her hair and send the ponytail back to Earth on the Space Shuttle Discovery to be made into a wig for a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy.

To state this woman is awe-inspiring is an understatement. In the ABC News Ponytail in Space report, when asked if she is a role model for young girls, Williams is quoted as saying, "I hope so. I wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed, the smartest kid on the block, but I think there was a lot of persistence. And I hope kids understand it is OK to fail, if you learn something from failing. Maybe you don't get the first thing that you want, but if you are good at what you do, and you try hard, some things sort of fall into place. If you want something, you can obtain it."

I would say the courageous, determined and spirited Williams is a heroic role model for everyone, regardless of gender or age. According to the report, the smart, tall, willowy brunette with a wicked sense of humor, and zest for life was dancing to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run before she climbed into her spacesuit for a grueling 7½-hour spacewalk on Saturday.

To view the online news video for this story, visit Space: The Haircutting Frontier.

Firefighters pull off heroic maneuvers all the time. Heat and smoke and fire are their constant companions. Emergency scenarios keep them perpetually challenged. Risking their lives is a top job responsibility. I can't imagine taking on this line of work, yet I am amazed by those who do -- for their eagerness to save lives while compromising their own. And to read today that cancer is another occupational hazard for firefighters makes me appreciate them even more.

In Edmonton, a firefighter who was praised as a hero for saving the life of a rookie firefighter in 2003 died on Saturday of job-related cancer at the age of 47 -- just two years after doctors diagnosed him with a terminal form of multiple myeloma. Clarke Stevens was expected to live for five years.

Ken Block, president of the Edmonton firefighters union said Stevens' death is a reminder of the risks these heroes take. Block says firefighters are between two and four times more likely to develop certain cancers, and Stevens is the fifth Edmonton firefighter to die of cancer since 2004.

It takes a special person to make saving others' lives a priority. To risk death in so many ways -- for the benefit of strangers -- must be the true definition of selflessness. And thank goodness for these selfless individuals who help keep the rest of us safe.

Caregivers are affected by cancer in their own unique and special ways. And those of us who have never been cancer caregivers and those of us who are patients receiving the care will never really know how it feels to walk in caregiver shoes -- until we do it ourselves.

Dr. Mitchell Luftig has done it himself. And after traveling a dark and unwanted journey of caring for his wife with breast cancer, he realized that he had learned a thing or two -- and he learned that he could share a thing or two. So he wrote a book, Be a Hero To The Woman You Love When She Gets Sick, and he speaks openly about his role as caregiver -- and his role at the time as father of twin high school daughters and husband of 20 years and clinical psychologist too. The whole ordeal turned his world upside down and he hopes that his story helps others -- primarily men -- who find themselves in a lonely place with the daunting job of caring for the people they love. As a psychologist, Luftig has good insight. And he wishes to help minimize the psychological barriers that prevent men from effectively caring for loved ones during times of serious illness.

Luftig shares in his book his realization that while he cannot repair and fix all hard times, he does have some important tools. And his power tools are love, support, and understanding. He has learned to sew joy out of rough cloth. He understands that he cannot shelter his family members from bad times, but he can shoulder their burden. And he now appreciates that all things are not so bad when measured against the yardstick of a life-threatening disease like cancer. Luftig's whole collection of wisdom and lessons and advice fill his book -- and bits and pieces also appear in periodic articles in Coping magazine. It's worth the read -- and the journey starts here.

Adriene's blog was the first I'd found when I was searching for information on breast cancer just after my own diagnosis with this life-threatening disease.  It was a good find because while Adriene and I were to travel different paths in our fights against cancer, our timelines were similar – we were diagnosed at about the same time (about 18 months ago), experienced chemotherapy and its side effects at about the same time, lost our hair at the same time, and we currently share very similar dark locks now that chemo is complete and our hair is returning.  I have never met Adriene and only know her through the e-mail and comments we have both left for each other on our respective blogs.  But Adriene was my first real sister through this breast cancer journey and I feel like I know her well – maybe it's the common road we are traveling and our worries, hopes, and dreams that are strikingly alike.  Our blogs are different, however.  While mine relies heavily on the written word – and includes a few photos – Adriene's blog features mostly photos and uses text on a minimum basis.  It's powerful and inspiring and so worth a visit.  Adriene is a survivor.  A fighter.  A cancer hero.

Volvo for life Awards, an annual event to honor the heroes in our lives, has created a new award called the Butterfly Award, in special recognition of a child whose good works is helping make the world a better place for others. The Butterfly Award was inspired by Alexandra Scott -- known to her family, and eventually to the world as Alex -- who came up with the idea of starting a lemonade stand to raise money to help her cancer doctors find a cure for kids with cancer.

For the next four years, Alex held an annual lemonade stand fundraiser in her front yard, called Alex's Lemonade Stand, for childhood cancer research. Since then, thousands of lemonade stands have been set up by children, schools, businesses, and organizations to benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for pediatric cancer. As of December 2005, her national campaign has raised over $5 million for pediatric cancer research. Alex lived eight years before cancer took her life. The award is in memory of a little girl who lived a very large life, and for children like her, who touch the world with character and compassion.