We follow celebrities on Twitter and Facebook, watch them on television, and read about them in supermarket checkout lines. Our relationship with celebrities has never been so immediate. Their personal trials are news headlines and water cooler talk.

Offering the first extensive look at celebrity health sagas, this book examines the ways in which their stories become our stories, influencing public perception and framing dialog about wellness, disease and death. These private-yet-public narratives drive fund-raising, reduce stigma and influence policy. Celebrities such as Mary Tyler Moore, Robin Roberts, Michael J. Fox, and Christopher Reeve--as well as 200 others included in the study--have left a lasting legacy.