These women are accustomed to admiration and adoration. They know that every day hundreds of people watch them leave the house, appear on the set, and shine on the red carpet. But the heroines of our selection are united not only by talent, but also by a terrible diagnosis, against which they did not cower.
Most women, having learned about the disease, decide to have a serious operation - mastectomy, removal of the mammary glands. Now they inspire millions of women around the world, proving that cancer can be defeated.
Foreign press about Russia and beyond
Kylie Minogue has headed to Melbourne to be with her family after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The pop superstar may now face surgery and months of treatment.
Yesterday, as soon as Kylie Minogue announced that she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, letters of support poured into the Australian star's address.
Kylie Minogue, who turns 37 next week, has canceled her Glastonbury festival and the Australian leg of her world tour to undergo treatment.
Minogue, who rose to fame as a teenage soap opera star and became a disco-era cult figure, completed a week of sold-out performances at Earl's Court before her illness became known.
As an unusually young victim of the disease, Minogue, who lives in London, will likely have to undergo months of treatment after surgery. In 2001, her father Ron was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was revealed that these two oncological diseases have common genetic roots.
Minogue will draw strength from the experience of American singer Anastacia, who was diagnosed with a breast tumor at the age of 29 and has since made a full recovery. A spokesman for Kylie Minogue said she was diagnosed with early-stage cancer while visiting family in Melbourne.
The singer said: “I was really looking forward to bringing the Showgirl concert to Australian audiences and I’m really sorry to disappoint my audience. However, I hope that everything goes well and that I will be with you again soon.”
Her boyfriend, French actor Olivier Martinez, is now with her.
Since appearing in Neighbors in 1988, Minogue has sold 40 million albums and had 30 consecutive number one singles in the UK.
Within hours of the message, her personal website received thousands of get-well wishes.
Dannii Minogue, her sister and fellow musician, said: "Because the cancer was diagnosed at such an early stage, we are very optimistic that everything will be fine." She thanked her sister's fans for their support, which "will mean a lot to her as she starts to get better."
Minogue has supported fundraising efforts for breast cancer and helped promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One of her tiniest bras was auctioned three years ago to benefit breast cancer.
Her planned televised appearance at next month's Glastonbury Festival was expected to be the highlight of an event traditionally dominated by rock bands.
It became known from informed circles that Minogue perceived this festival as a career peak, after which she could leave the music industry. In the past she was ridiculed as a puppet of Stoke Aitken and Waterman, the producers of her debut single I Should Be So Lucky, but has since become one of the world's biggest stars.
Fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano and Julien MacDonald designed the costumes for her Showgirls tour, which features her as a trendsetter who has been setting trends for 17 years.
Madonna was the winner of one of the 100,000 tickets to the Earl's Court concert, but the tour made Minogue's schedule grueling. She parted ways with William Baker - her creative director for 11 years, who put her on her famously seductive gold shorts - saying it was "time to move on".
Minogue has said she is considering starting a family with Martinez and moving on to a new stage in a career that has seen her work with Nick Cave and the Scissor Sisters.
She became a successful businesswoman. Selfridges paid £750,000 for exclusive rights to its Love Kylie lingerie range. She also managed to secure lucrative deals with Pepsi, British Airways, Ford and Eurostar.
Kylie Minogue's Australian tour was due to begin in Sydney tomorrow.
Glastonbury festival organizers wished her well and said it would be "extremely difficult to find a replacement."
Jason Donovan, who starred with Kylie in Neighbors and sang a duet with her, said: “I sincerely wish her recovery. Kylie is a strong woman who will fight on all fronts."
Victims and winners
Linda McCartney
, wife of Sir Paul McCartney, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, which later spread to the liver. Died in 1998
Olivia Newton-John
, an Australian actress, learned at the age of 43 that she had breast cancer. A year later it turned out that it was a false alarm
Lynn Redgrave
, an Oscar-nominated actress, had a mastectomy in 2002
Shirley Temple
, a former child star, had a mastectomy at the age of 44, which she described as being like "losing an old friend"
Nancy Reagan
, former first lady of the United States, chose breast removal over tumor removal in 1987
Dusty Springfield
, 59, a singer famous in the 1960s, died of breast cancer in 1998, the day she was due to receive an OBE
Risks and diagnoses
The two main types of breast cancer are proliferating and non-proliferating. Non-proliferating cancer
means that there are cells in the breast tissue that are developing abnormally. These cells are limited to the milk ducts or lobes of the mammary gland and cannot spread beyond its boundaries.
In case of proliferating cancer
— what is usually meant when people talk about “breast cancer” — these cells are no longer confined to the lobes of the mammary gland or the milk ducts.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, although it is rare in men. Up to 100 new cases of disease are diagnosed every day. Almost a third of cancer cases in women are breast cancer.
The risk of developing breast cancer before age 25 is 1 in 15,000. By age 30, it increases sharply, to 1 in 1,900; up to 1 in 200 at age 40, and up to 1 in 50 at age 50. The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is 1 in 9.
Around 40,700 women in the UK were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. In 2002, 13,000 women died from breast cancer in the UK. The death rate has fallen steadily over the past 10 years.
Breast cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK, after lung cancer and colon cancer.
Only 5 to 10% of breast cancer cases are due to hereditary causes.
In nine out of ten cases, breast lumps are not signs of breast cancer.
In 90% of cases, breast cancer is discovered by women themselves or their partners.
1% of breast cancer patients are men; in 2001, 290 men were diagnosed with breast cancer. Most male victims of this form of cancer are over 60 years of age.
