As Farrah battles with anal cancer (on-and-off) since September 2006, her attitude has remained positive throughout. The lovely lady from Charlie’s Angels truly deserves a bunch of respect for that! She believes in the power of the human spirit – often a life saviour in dire circumstances like hers.

A relatively rare form of cancer, women are more susceptible to anal cancer. Treatment usually involves surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy, which she received as a combo. After the recurrence of her cancer, she took it a step further, and – allegedly – received stem cell treatment in Germany. Whatever alternative treatment she received, it goes to show that a lot of research is still being done in the fight against cancer.

During her treatment after the recurrence, Farrah started filming her life experience with cancer. Videoed by herself and close friends, in true reality style – the documentary named ‘A Wing and a Prayer’ – release date 1 November 2008 in the USA - promises to be a life changing experience for many viewers. She felt that diarising her experience will be a positive way of documenting and sharing her ‘fight the fight’ battle with this disease. Truly a remarkable idea in the light of her celebrity status. No matter what cancer you or a loved-one might be battling with, viewing a documentary of this nature will leave you with anew willpower to fight and stay strong. The knowledge that someone out there has the same struggle as you, is like a ‘support group in your TV room’.

Anal cancer is linked to human papilloma virus (HPV), and it is strongly suggested for young woman to receive the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) for protection against many diseases and cancers. Like most cancers, if caught at an early stage, anal cancer is very curable. Often patients don’t need all three treatments, like in Farrah’s case. Often age will play a role in the choice of aggressive treatment. Unfortunately for Farrah, her cancer came at a later age.

Cancer has touched her life before. First with her sister Diane, who passed away in 2001 from lung cancer. Her (then) life partner, Ryan O’Neal, struggled and beat leukaemia after being diagnosed in 2001. Also her Charlie’s Angels co-star and friend, Jaclyn Smith, beat breast cancer in 2003. Ryan and Jaclyn are two of her supporting friends in her own struggle today.

One can only feel disdain as you see how tabloids and paparazzi invade the privacy of a human being in an ordeal like hers. After an UCLA staffer was snooping in her medical records, one can only imagine the distress she went though. As a cancer patient; feeling confused, tired, alone, stressed and overwhelmed – she once again handled the situation courageously, like the true lady she is. According to Craig Nevius (Chasing Farrah), she feels ‘cautiously optimistic’ about her condition, and realises that, with cancer ‘the test is time’.

As for her upcoming documentary – the people closely in touch with the fight against cancer can’t wait to hear her story. We hope it will be due for release to the rest of the world soon, and wish her all the best in her ‘fight the fight’.