Austin-based national columnist Molly Ivins is waging her third battle against breast cancer, but it's not stopping her from writing and cheerfully gigging Republicans.

The 61-year-old columnist told a fundraiser for the Austin-based liberal journal, The Texas Observer, that she feels "pretty good" and refuses to give in to her illness.

The California-born, Houston-raised writer got her third cancer diagnosis around Thanksgiving.

She's undergone chemotherapy and is nearly bald.

Ivins has all but forbidden gifts of food and other items.

She was overwhelmed with well-intended advice and goodies after she wrote of her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1999.

Her assistant, Betsy Moon, says the outpouring kept her from telling readers of her recurrences in 2003 and two months ago.

Nearly 400 newspapers subscribe to her twice-weekly column.

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