My name is Molly McMaster and I'm a colon cancer survivor. 

I was diagnosed with Stage II on my 23rd birthday, February 19th, 1999. Since then, I've committed myself to raising awareness of the disease that could have killed me, and has already taken the lives of many friends.

Friday, February 19th, it was my twenty-third birthday, and by far the one I'll never forget. My surgeon came to visit me that morning, and those first few moments he spent with me are still just as vivid today. He pulled the privacy curtain and sat on the edge of my bed, gripping my hand with a sweaty palm. I didn't really understand at first. He was using those big "cancer" words that I'd never heard before...the ones he'd probably learned during his twenty years of medical school. Finally, he made it clear. The tumor he had removed was colon cancer.

I didn't hear a single word out of my doctor's mouth for the next twenty minutes...or maybe it was only five. I don't even know. Time had stopped. Have you ever thought about what it would feel like if someone told you that you had cancer?-What you'd do? I was twenty-three years old and had never even considered it. My initial thought was, "I'm going to die." I'd already given up. Then I began thinking of the most perfect and painless way to kill myself. The car in the garage sounded good. And how could this happen to me, anyway? I'm not at risk. It doesn't run in my family. I'm a healthy, twenty-three year old female, who works out regularly, only has an occasional drink, doesn't smoke or do drugs, and here I am with cancer. 

Since I learned of "my cancer," everything has flipped itself inside out. I had my twenty-fourth and final chemotherapy treatment on Monday, October 18th, 1999, and know that I can move on. I'm living my life because I know what it's like to almost lose it all. My words of wisdom? Live for the moment. It's the only time you can be sure you've got!

Cancer is a scary word. I don't want it to be that way anymore. I want the world to know that it's out there and anyone can get it. I've proven that. But I've also proven that it can be beaten. It is the most treatable form of cancer, if it's caught early enough. It's simple. Know your body, know the symptoms, know what they mean, and be persistent, because most doctors don't believe that someone in their early twenties can get it. If you're having the symptoms, or you're in your fifties, get tested by having a colonoscopy. It could save your life.