As I said earlier, I've never been a fan of hers, but I do respect what she offered. This happens to be the business she was in and she is one individual who happens to have access to the media/entertainment platform. I say, "good for her!" for using it to raise any possible awareness.

I had never known that this kind of critter is even out there. Her lifetime was spent in entertainment— it's what she knows. She used her access and fame to send an important message to millions of people. How she did it is immaterial, that she did it is important. She could have done nothing at all.

Having had to stop working, I empathize with the feeling of missing my presence in the professional mix. I miss the uber-intelligent people, the activity, the sense of contribution, and of course, the money.

Our society's ravenous appetite for "inside poop" on celebrities feeds the machine she was operating. In the grander scheme, it's important to remember that she is only a mortal woman and she did what she could to raise awareness about a hideous disease.

For an individual whose livelihood, self-esteem, professional success, and popularity rested primarily on her looks, it had to be a rather humbling experience to bare her horrid journey to the world.

As we say in PR, there is really no "bad" publicity.

From what I have read she wanted to raise awareness of this type of cancer. And it pretty much was from her journal as to what was happening to her with treatment, progression, etc.

I am glad that she does have access and the means to making this known. It makes most people sit up and take notice if nothing else.

She also was tired of all the "stories" that were out there via the news media, tabloids, etc. I guess you expect that when you are a celebrity but it is nice to know how it actually is going from the person.

And I think it must be terrifically hard for Ryan and for her son. And I don't think that anyone should be saying, you made your bed - now go lie in it, so to speak.

There was a doctor on our tv here the day before yesterday. His opinion seemed to be that she was doing a really great thing by raising awareness so that other people who have symptoms (e.g. itching in that area) will not just ignore it, but will get medical advice because he said that if the first symptoms can be treated then it is most likely that the prognosis is good. Edited to add: He also talked about some of the risk factors for some people and about prevention as well, but his emphasis was about symptoms which can easily be mistaken for something quite different.

I don't think it matters what type of cancer a person has, or what *may* have caused it. The person has cancer and that's a shocking thing always. If a person who has HCV ends up progressing to liver cancer... we don't sit around wondering how they got their HCV... we care that they have liver cancer. Just another example.

As this doctor said on our tv... no one seems to have heard about this type of cancer that Farrah has and it's very rare, but this is raising awareness. People are talking and learning and hopefully if some of the really early symptoms appear it can help prevent such horrible surgery and shocking illness as some have described above. I think that's always admirable.

I just finished watching the documentary. I cried.

I am copying Kitt's post 'cause I could not have said it better myself.