Michael Douglas is fighting that battle so many have to face – against cancer.

In his case, it is throat, but it can be anywhere in anyone’s body.

And can totally devastate not just those it attacks but also their families and friends.

People react differently which doesn’t mean any of them are less affected. Some are hyperactive looking for both the possible and the impossible.

Others create a wonderful and secure haven despite feeling so helpless and scared inside. And whoever you are, famous or not, the impact can be searing.

Which it may be for Michael’s wife Catherine Zeta Jones, who says she can’t bear to see him having his chemotherapy treatment so she doesn’t go with him. So he takes their two small children, though his wife gamely points out that she is waiting when they get home.

Not quite the same though, is it? Ask the kids.

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Oh no! Prepare for an influx of crudely drawn or carelessly cut out giant hands bearing messages. They suddenly appeared above the crowds at the weekend’s Help For Heroes Concert asking us all to give a ‘Big Hand 4 The Heroes’ then next day, TUC delegates marched out of their conference hall waving even bigger brightly coloured hands declaring their opposition to government spending plans.

Hands up if you see that one catching on as a national message board!

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Alex Ferguson said he wouldn’t put poor little Wayne through the ordeal of a trip to Everton and those nasty jibes, David Beckham says Rooney is in the best place at Manchester United for protection, comfort and support.

Haven’t the pair of them got the wrong end of the stick in the blame game here?

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The Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and a future king’s wedding within about two months?

That, according to the famous A. Source, is what is now predicted.

Maybe so. But this presumably is the same A. Source who indicated the date would be this summer when Prince William reached the age he once said was the earliest he would marry – 28.

And, now I think about it, also suggested next summer so that it would avoid the Olympics, Diamond Jubilee and so forth.

There is one conclusion to be drawn here: A. Source knows about as much as the rest of us!

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This world may be a wonderful place but it is also very scary.

Witness the all-American guy who got upset with his wife because he didn’t like the way she cooked his breakfast eggs. So he shot her and then shot four neighbours who tried to help.

Five ordinary people lay dead at the beginning of one ordinary day, murdered by a guy everyone thought was ordinary but was in fact a walking time bomb.

Truly, you never can tell.

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If that’s scary life, here is crazy: a fire eater in Germany burped in the middle of his act and set a nearby couple on fire. You couldn’t make it up, could you?

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According to a company producing DIY tools (of course) four in five women do household jobs like putting up shelves to save money. And that’s a story?

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Well good for her. A Devon granny of 72 who is making a big name for herself selling saucy undies at parties, arrives on her mobility scooter.

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On Monday, the US tennis final was rained off (again) at 11pm our time and I somehow found myself watching a ridiculous programme to do with Val and Roger coming home.

What on earth was that all about?