"I had recently given my 12th grade exams, when I came home one day and felt tremendous pain in my thigh, followed by a high fever. When I visited my family doctor, they asked us to get a sonography done and that's when we realised I had a 4kg tumour inside my body that didn't show even a little bit from the outside. I went into surgery the next day and I remember my doctor pacing up and down the room trying to break it to me that I had 3rd stage cancer, but by then I had already figured it out. I made it easier for her by asking her the question, 'will I lose my hair?' At that point, when my parents asked the doctor for my chances of survival, I was at 0%.
The thing is, from the very beginning I didn't allow cancer to get the better of me - if anything, cancer was always playing a losing game with me. Since the time I was diagnosed with a 0% survival chance, I had made up my mind that I would defeat it. I did lose my hair, so I called a barber home and shaved it all off and proceeded to mock myself in front of others as 'egghead' - I never allowed cancer to make me a victim. I've always called myself a 'shameless cancer patient' because I would just laugh things off and embrace them as an experience - but I think that's the only thing that got me out of it.
Infact, cancer made me realise how lucky I am to have gotten a 2nd life and to pursue everything I'm passionate about. I studied clinical psychology because I wanted to help others, especially teens who had cancer to deal with it. But the biggest thing cancer has done for me is to push me into music - I began singing to emote better - and I'm the lead singer of my own band!
So what can I say - I went through 3 chemo sessions, 8 surgeries and a million complications at the age of 17 -- but I won the battle, only because I was shameless enough to laugh at it rather than giving it the power to be life threatening."