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We have all heard about the sad death of Farrah Fawcett. Right now I am watching an episode of Charlie's Angels, the show that launched her to superstardom. She only appeared in the first season of the show but of course she made an impression.

People who didn't grow up in the 60s & 70s don't realize that there were not that many shows that had strong women as the leads on shows. I grew up with the Angels and Wonder Woman. We didn't have the shows with lots of strong female leads like today like Mariska Hartigay on Law & Order SVU or any of the Desperate Housewives.

I know people who watch the shows now will say it is dated and, during its time it was called jiggle tv, but still these ladies were my heroes none the less.

Farrah died of anal cancer. According to the American Cancer Society there are only 5,000 new cases of anal cancer every year, with about 680 deaths. The type of cancer she died of didn't have a walk or an awareness month. In fact, I, like most people I am sure, have never heard of anal cancer until Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with it.

I watched, or I should say, I tried to watch Farrah's Story when it first aired. It was real, it was gripping, and for me it cut a little to close to home. Watching her story was difficult, I think everyone who has been diagnosed and watches someone who films their life or watches a movie of the week about someone who has cancer sees a little bit of themselves in that person, and I am no exception. Watching Farrah want to cut off her blonde locks that made her so famous in the 70's so that she would lose her hair on her own terms was a reminder of something that I had gone through (shaving my head that is) I couldn't watch the entire two hours of Farrah's Story. It was too hard for me to watch, although I was hoping to muster up the courage to watch the entire 2 hour movie and hopefully the sequel, but sadly that will never come.

Obviously how every person deals with cancer and chemo is different, but I could relate to a lot of the things she was going through, and I applaud her for going public with her very personal battle, bringing light to a disease, showing people that if an american icon like her can get this insidious disease then anyone can.

Farrah was only 12 years older than me when she passed. 12 years. That is not much older than me. That is first thru twelfth grade, barely a blip in time in the universe.

All three of the original Charlies Angels battled cancer, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith had breast cancer, they battled the disease and both are currently in remission.

So as the night, and a tribute to Farrah comes to a close, I applaud you & thank you Farrah Fawcett, thank you for showing the world what cancer is like, I didn't see it from a celebrities perspective, just from a woman's perspective. You had a great impact on me when I was a young girl and you have had a far greater impact on me now.