What’s happening around us

By Elizabeth Whittington

Marg Helgenberger, star of CSI, and a thousand other women gathered in Las Vegas to compete for the title of Bunco Champion while raising money for breast cancer research. The tournament raised more than $1 million for the National Breast Cancer Coalition. Bunco, a dice game favored among women as an alternative to “poker night,” has been gaining popularity around the country. Women use the gatherings as an opportunity to talk with friends about health concerns like breast cancer and to raise money for breast cancer research. In the past five years, Bunco clubs have raised more than $350,000 for the cause.

Coretta Scott King, 78, wife of late civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., died of advanced ovarian cancer on Jan. 30. Doctors diagnosed her with inoperable cancer last fall, just months after she had a stroke in August 2005. She traveled to Mexico with her family to undergo non-traditional treatments, but died before she was admitted. King was a civil rights activist in her own right, especially after her husband’s death. She was instrumental in creating a national holiday to honor her husband’s legacy and founding The King Center in Atlanta.

A $100 million donation to Baylor College of Medicine will be used to create a second comprehensive cancer center in Houston in addition to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The center will be named after the donor, Dan Duncan, a prostate cancer survivor and founder of a Fortune 500 company.

Sheryl Crow postponed her upcoming tour after undergoing surgery in February for early-stage breast cancer. The 44-year-old singer-songwriter will receive radiation therapy, and doctors say her prognosis is excellent.

Rena Inoue, two-time U.S. pairs figure-skating champion and eight-year lung cancer survivor, competed in the 2006 Olympics held in Torino, Italy with her partner John Baldwin, Jr. The couple became the first to successfully complete the throw triple axle in Olympic Games history. Inoue was diagnosed with lung cancer at 22, less than two years after her father died from the disease.