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Survivor Stories

Survivor: Elizabeth Lindsay

Imagine being 22 years old and almost 6,000 miles away from your family in a land where no one is like you, you don't know anyone, and the language is as foreign as snow on the equator. Now imagine being in that situation and hearing the words, "You have cancer." I was that person. I have never been so afraid in my life. I am from a small town just north of Salt Lake City, UT and was living in Japan. I had Stage 3 colorectal cancer and if I had not gotten a colonoscopy there in Japan, I never would have found it in time. It was just starting to spread.

When I got home, I met with one of the nation's leading colorectal surgical oncologists, Dr. Bradford Sklow. He literally saved my life! He performed a miracle surgery removing the tumor and some of my lymph nodes.

From there I went trough six weeks of 24/7 chemo treatments and 5-day-a-week radiation treatments. Then I had six more chemo treatments, one every other week. I missed out on a lot of things because of the cancer. It was a living nightmare. My life is still disrupted almost daily because of the effects of surgery and treatments. I no longer eat what I want, I really have to be careful.

Please don't ever think that cancer won't hit you. There is no history of any kind of cancer anywhere in my family. I am 24 years old and I am a colon cancer survivor. It can hit anywhere and anyone. Please get screened! Who knows, it may save your life. I know it saved mine.

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