Ivy Yeoman

Story: "Always priding myself as a strong mother of two and the wife of a Marine, I thought I had endured all that I could handle after experiencing my husband away on a number of deployments and the loss of my mother at 28. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. In October of 2015, six weeks out from being transferred to the Marine Corps base in Hawaii, I was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. Certainly not what I expected to hear at thirty years old. When I initially received the news following my colonoscopy, I was still feeling the effects of the anesthesia and was completely alone. My husband was three states away training and I had no family anywhere nearby, something that I had come to terms with after so many years of being a Marine wife.

"We lived in South Carolina while my husband was working as a Marine Corps drill instructor and all of our family was on the west coast. I suppose it was not the most ideal situation, but nevertheless, we adapted. After two weeks I was in surgery with a team of the best doctors in the state followed by six very long, very excruciating months of chemo. One month after I completed chemo I went into surgery a second time, this time for kidney cancer. Fortunately, this cancer did not require chemo and today I have been completely cancer-free for seven months and counting!"

Advice: "I would advise others that may not have experience with colon cancer, especially those under age thirty, to invest some serious time in researching their family history. I did not have many resources to do so but if at all possible, ask every family member questions about what runs in your family. For those that are fighting now, do not give up! Surround yourself with positivity. Positive people, positive doctors (if the first doctor doesn't feel right then move on to another), doctors that truly care about your health, and positive thoughts. Your mind is a powerful thing and it can make or break you, so think and live with optimism every single day."