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.

My house was struck by lightening the other day. I wasn't home at the time but heard the violent storm from inside my mom's house, in the same neighborhood. The thunder and lightening was so loud and crashing, I wondered if it would tear through the roof above me. It didn't -- but it did tear apart quite a lot at my house, just a block away.

When I got home, I smelled a burning odor, heard a surge protector beeping, and discovered I'd lost power in half my house. A neighbor came to my rescue -- my husband and boys were at the beach while I stayed home to recover from my recent illness -- and restored the electricity in my house. I thought all was well, except for a cable outtage which I determined a minor inconvenience. But then I noticed plaster, rock, and wood had been sprayed around my boys' room and a guest room. My youngest son's bed was covered. A lone piece of wood sat in the middle of the guest room. Where had this come from?

It came from the baseboards located in one corner in each room. They had been shred into pieces and torn from the walls. And my carpet had been somehow lifted up from the floor and appeared singed at the edges. When I spoke to my husband about this amazing destruction, we came to appreciate just how powerful weather can be. Mostly, though, we counted our blessings. No one had been home. No one had been outside at the time of the strike. Our house had not burned down. Our smallest child was not in bed when the debris flew. We are lucky.

Today, I am grateful my family survived the storm.

New Zealand Christchurch Hospital radiation therapists are in a dispute over pay and have threatened to stage a strike beginning the first week of January. According to the hospital's clinical director of radiation oncologist Dr. Chris Wynne, the amount of money being argued over is so small that the other doctors have offered to pitch in and make up the difference to end the dispute and avert a strike that would affect 250 cancer patients.

Because Dr. Wynne has not received a response from the District Health Board or the radiologists regarding the monetary offer made by the doctors, he has decided to bring attention to the dispute by doing something even he admits is stupid -- he has started smoking. That's right. He is standing outside the hospital smoking cigarettes in a play for media attention. Obviously, it is working, as the story has been picked up around the globe.

But surely, was this the only way he could think to bring attention to the dispute? Who knows -- you and I might have chosen a different course of action -- but Dr. Wynne thinks it is the only thing left to do to bring attention to the innocent victims who will be affected by the strike -- the cancer patients who will have to go without timely treatment. Dr. Wynne says he will continue doing a stupid thing by smoking for as long as it takes until the stupidity of the entire situation ends.

Today marks the beginning of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And today, I realize how aware I am of breast cancer -- how much more aware I am than ever before, compliments of a personal encounter with a disease that snuck up on me with no warning and thrust me into a two-year battle that physically, has just ended. Emotionally, the trek continues. But it's not horrible and it's not disabling -- anymore. On most days, it's enlightening, empowering, strengthening.

I think it's the brush with mortality that woke me up to the privileged life I live. Cancer allows me to wake in the morning feeling alive. It allows me to fall asleep at night feeling thankful. And every day, I am totally, completely, acutely aware of how absolutely lucky I am to be living.

There was a time when October was nothing more than another month to me -- a month that stood out only for the onset of autumn and falling leaves and halloween and trick-or-treat. Now I know October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- the month belonging to millions of women living with breast cancer and the millions who need to prepare for a possible breast cancer strike. It's a powerful month, jam-packed with events and activities and promotions and media attention. It's a sad month, marking the loss of life for so many who could not conquer an evil disease. It's a happy month, symbolic of life that goes on despite this same evil disease. It's a month that allows me a lifetime membership. A month that will always be on my radar. A month I can call my own -- a month I am proud to call my own.

Just before my chemotherapy for breast cancer started -- when I was fantastically frightened by the toxic drugs that were about to drip into my veins -- I was told by doctors, nurses, survivors, friends that I would be just fine. I was young and strong and tough. I would easily tolerate the beating my body was about to take. This is what I was told and actually came to believe myself. I had no other choice really than to approach chemotherapy with a fighter mentality. And so I did. And I did pretty well for my first three doses of Adriamycin and Cytoxan -- given every two weeks instead of three in a dose-dense fashion -- followed by one injection of Neulasta 24 hours later to maintain normal blood counts. And then something happened. And I did not end up tolerating the chemotherapy my gut told me was a scary endeavor.

After 16 days, the hunger strike colon cancer patients launched in protest over a broken campaign promise has ended. During Israel's last election, colon cancer patients were promised that their medications would be included in the 2006 health basket, and when that promise was not honored, they staged a hunger strike.

For 16 days they sat outside in the Rose Garden in Jerusalem, refusing to end the protest. They were willing to die of hunger before they were willing to die from cancer because of medications denied. During the hunger strike, one of the protestors collapsed and had to be hospitalized at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem. The protest has ended because the government has now assured the cancer patients they will receive the drugs they need to fight their cancer. But, if the promise is broken again, I suspect these strong-willed and resolute people will be right back protesting again. Cancer can make people that way -- from all the fighting against a disease that is trying to take life away. The government might want to just keep the promise.

In an earlier post, we told you about the desperate situation playing out in Israel, where colon cancer patients have gone on a hunger strike in a public protest over lack of access to potentially life-saving cancer drugs. Now on the ninth day of their strike, Israeli billionaire Sammy Ofer has offered to pay for a month's supply of the needed drug for colon cancer patients until Ministry of Health officials can work something out to insure colon cancer patients receive the drugs they need to fight their cancer.

According to the newspaper account, supporters of the cancer patients expressed their appreciation to Ofer for his generosity but what they want is to ensure the accessibility of all new medications that have been proven effective and have been recommended by the pharmaceutical evaluation committee to all cancer patients.

MK Shelly Yechimovitch is quoted as saying that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the State of Israel were ultimately responsible for the lives and well-being of Israeli citizens and should not have to rely on donations from private citizens. I couldn't agree more. While Ofer's offer is a generous one, cancer patients should not be put in a position of relying on the charity of others for medical treatments, because then it always becomes a matter of uncertainty of where and when the next aid will come. The hunger strike continues.

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that colon cancer patients have launched a hunger strike in front of the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. A promise that their medications would be included in the 2006 health basket was made before the election, and until the promise is honored, they will stage the hunger strike. According to the news report, the colon cancer patients say they will keep up the hunger strike until the medication they need to help them fight and survive cancer is made available through the national government health program -- or they die where they sit in protest.

Ron Harush, one of the hunger strikers in need of the currently denied medications stated, "We have nothing to lose. The shame must end and the drugs must be approved or we will be returning our souls to our creator." More and more, I am coming to the belief that the future global trend in cancer survival will be a luxury of the wealthy -- if surviving cancer depends on the newest cancer drugs and treatments.