4. Melissa Etheridge

When she was 43-years-old, in 2004, the singer Melissa Etheridge found a lump in the left breast. The two-time Grammy Award winner was in the middle of a summer concert tour and she went back home where she underwent a biopsy and the physicians confirmed she had breast cancer. During a lumpectomy, surgeons removed a four-centimeter tumor and 15 lymph nodes from Melissa, who was also submitted to five rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

As she was being treated, the singer was invited to sing at the 2005 Grammy Awards and her song Breathe was nominated for a Grammy. The image of a bald rock star singing Piece of My Heart was very powerful and she became an inspiration and sign of empowerment and resilience for women everywhere.”Every day someone comes up to me and says something about that performance,” stated Melissa, who also wrote a song called I Run for Life that was dedicated to breast cancer survivors.