I wrote about this little girl a few months ago, her name is Alex and she has a lemonade stand. What’s so brilliant about this young lady is her unflinching spirit in the presence of cancer and her unwillingness to bend to its will as she tries to fight cancer on her own terms. Those terms include running a lemonade stand and donating all the proceeds to cancer research.

Since Alex started her entrepreneurial campaign four years ago, she’s helped raise over $700,000 for pediatric cancer research.

This weekend, Alex lost her fight.

This doesn’t mean we should give up on the big picture, you and I can still do something to combat what should be and CAN be treatable cancers. Donate to the ACS…buy a bracelet…volunteer for a cancer related fund raising event. Do something. Make a difference.

Countless individuals will thank you when they go to bed at night knowing their lives were spared in no small part by the generosity Alex and those she inspired have shown the world through their giving.

This morning I learned that Steve Jobs had a tumor removed from is pancreas, and I’ve got to tell you…this breaks my heart. Maybe because I’ve seen first hand what happens when you have pancreatic cancer. Maybe because I know how slim the survival rate is. Maybe because the similarities with the victims I know of are eerie. Life is good? You can finally see happiness on the horizon and the dreams you had being realized? Alright, here’s a little cancer.

So here’s the thought. Skip your Starbucks or lunch out today. Donate even $5 to the ACS. Its only five freaking dollars, man. You’ll never even miss it. For Alex, for Steve Jobs, for Bill Hicks, for my dad, for too many others. Too many. Make a donation and pray that if “it” hasn’t struck near you — that it doesn’t.

** footnote…research following initial news report shows Jobs did not in fact have adenocarcinoma but a very treatable tumor that happened to be on his pancreas. A full recovery is expected. Read more here .