Former TV Reporter Inspires Hope To Those Affected By Cancer

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A former TV reporter who put a face on how to cope on a daily basis with being a breast cancer survivor was the keynote speaker at a "Celebration of Hope" conference for area patients, survivors and their loved ones.

Lu Ann Cahn took the crowd along on her one year journey, depicted in her book, "I Dare Me," of trying something new every day, forcing herself to get out of her comfort zone.

"I did things I never thought I would do. I met people I never thought I would meet, and life opened up again," she says.

The book grew out of a blog called "Year of Firsts," suggested by her daughter, in an effort to get her life "unstuck."

"As long as you have breath, you can create moments," she says.

The reporter, wife, mother and cancer survivor rebooted and recharged her life by taking daily risks in 2010- large and small- like having a go at hula hoop, to a polar bear plunge into the freezing cold ocean in Atlantic City one New Year's day, or starting a conversation with a complete stranger.

"Everything you do, something for the first time, it's like throwing a pebble in the karmic universal pond of life. It creates ripples and energy- possibilities that were not there before!'

For 27 of her 40-years in TV news, Lu Ann reported for Channel 10.