Laura and Cherie On a Crusade (2002)

Cherie Blair and Laura Bush come from opposite ends of modern womanhood.

While Cherie is a leading barrister with a six-figure salary, the president's wife was a shy former librarian who loves cooking.

But when they met at Camp David in February, they quickly found they shared a crusade - battling breast cancer.

Cherie lost an aunt and a best friend to the disease and Laura's mother was a victim.

As Tony and Dubya got ready to plot the world's future in Crawford, Texas, the First Ladies joined forces to help women with the disease.

They kicked off their weekend together by attending a fund-raising event for breast cancer awareness and research.

Cherie, who arrived in Texas before her husband, told the audience in Dallas on Thursday: "We associate our breasts with our nurturing, our sexuality. To find a lump and to think of having that femininity removed is agonising.

"But there is still life after breast cancer. You can still feel alive and sexy."

Laura added: "Many of us know and love someone who has had breast cancer and it is very important we work together to find a cure.

"Cherie thought it would be fun if we worked together to increase awareness in breast cancer care and support."

Each year 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the US and 40,000 in Britain.

英国的首相夫人切莉·布莱尔和美国的第一夫人劳拉·布什可以说是两种截然不同的现代女性的代表。

切莉是一位月薪高达六位数的首席律师，而性格腼腆的美国总统夫人劳拉则曾是一位喜爱厨艺的图书管理员。

然而当这两位女性今年二月在戴维营会面的时候，二人很快找到一个共同的目标，成为了并肩作战的"战友"--向乳腺癌宣战。

切莉曾有一位阿姨和一个最好的朋友被乳腺癌夺去了生命，而劳拉的母亲也曾经是一位乳腺癌患者。

当英国首相布莱尔和美国总统布什准备在德克萨斯的克劳福斯共商世界发展大计的时候，两位"第一夫人"则携起手来，准备为帮助患有乳腺癌的女同胞们献上自己的一份力量。

她们牺牲周末时间，共同出席为提高女性防治乳腺癌意识和进行乳腺癌研究而举办的集资公益活动。

切莉先于布莱尔到达德克萨斯，4月4日她在德州东北部城市达拉斯参加公益活动时对观众们说道："我们的乳房在哺乳和性生活中都有很重要的作用，所以如果发现乳房中有了肿块，女性魅力大打折扣，该会是多么痛苦啊！"

她还说："但是乳腺癌并不意味着死亡。大家仍然可以做到活力充沛，性感迷人。"

劳拉则补充道："我们中的许多人身边都有乳腺癌患者，这些人或许是我们认识的，或许是我们所深爱着的，所以我们必须共同努力，找到治疗的方法。"

"切莉认为齐心协力帮助大家提高防治乳腺癌的意识，为乳腺癌治疗提供支持，是很有意义的事情。"

在美国，每年有20万名女性被诊断出患有乳腺癌，在英国则有4万人患有此病。