[Pictured, from left: Lee-Anne Drummond, Kellie Hayden, Jane McGrath and Amanda Alcott]

Everyone needs friends, but when you have a condition as personal and serious as breast cancer, you need friends all the more.

Jane McGrath, wife of Australian cricket hero Glenn McGrath, knows this only too well. During the past decade, she has relied on both her family and her dearest friends to help her get through the bouts of treatment she needs to keep fighting this disease.

To emphasise the need women with breast cancer have for their friends, the McGrath Foundation — the charitable organisation Jane and Glenn set up to help fight breast cancer — has launched the photographic book, Extraordinary Friendships Through Breast Cancer, a beautiful and touching collection of images depicting a host of international celebrities, including Roseanna Arquette and Jerry Hall, by renowned international photographer Rankin.

The book and a national campaign, sponsored by Roche Pharmaceuticals, aim to encourage women with breast cancer to identify and enlist the help of their friends as they progress through their treatment.

"Women with breast cancer need a friend to give them strength and support," says Jane.

When she needs help, Jane, 40, calls on her "Pit Crew", the friends who rally around at her greatest times of need: Lee-Anne Drummond, who helps take Jane's children, James, seven, and Holly, five, to and from school; Kellie Hayden, wife of cricketer Matthew Hayden, who always provides a solid shoulder for Jane to lean on; and Amanda Alcott, wife of Errol Alcott, the former physiotherapist to the Australian cricket team, who has often picked up James and Holly when Jane is having treatment.

"They are wonderful, special girls," says Jane. "I really don't know where I would be without them. They are brilliant and such an amazing support. The only person missing from the photo is my doctor, Lucy, who is also my good friend."

The book is for sale nationally through the campaign's retail partners, Wheel and Barrow, Crabtree and Evelyn and Charlie Brown, as well as through The McGrath Foundation website at www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au.