It’s no secret that our culture is fascinated with celebrities. We blog about them, talk about them and wait for them to make news. We like to know that they are like us and make mistakes, wear bad outfits and drive too fast. Occasionally these men and women also share their battles, and they help us to be brave. 

Here are 20 celebrities who SURVIVED and THRIVED after having breast cancer:

• Christina Applegate, American television actress (Samantha in Samantha Who?)
• Brigitte Bardot, French actress and animal rights activist
• Shirley Temple Black, American Oscar-winning child actress and former United States Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, who is said to have been (in 1973) the first famous person to publicly announce her breast cancer diagnosis
• Sheryl Crow, American singer/musician
• Melissa Etheridge, American singer
• Edie Falco, American stage and TV actress (Carmela – The Sopranos)
• Deanna Favre, founded The Deanna Favre Hope Foundation and wife of American football quarterback Brett Favre
• Peggy Fleming, American figure skater
• Betty Ford, former United States First Lady
• Betsey Johnson, American fashion designer
• Kylie Minogue, Australian singer, actress
• Sue Myrick, American politician, Republican U.S. House Representative from North Carolina
• Cynthia Nixon, American stage and TV actress (Miranda from Sex and the City)
• Sandra Day O’Connor, first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Nancy Reagan, former U.S. First Lady
• Judy Rankin, American Hall of Fame professional golfer
• Margaretta Fitler Murphy Rockefeller aka “Happy” Rockefeller, American socialite and wife of former N.Y. Governor and U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
• Richard Roundtree, African-American actor (John Shaft in Shaft)
• Maura Tierney, American film and television (Nurse Abby Lockheart in ER)
• Linda Tripp, former U.S. Government federal employee and Monica Lewinsky’s former confidant

Celebrity or not, it’s wonderful to know you CAN beat this disease!