MY STORY

Most college students are concerned with studying, going to class, playing sports, and going to parties. On the surface, East Carolina University Junior, Taylor Bell is a picture image of a typical college student, if not a little more polished. She played NCAA Division 1 soccer for the East Carolina Pirates; she is a congresswoman in student government, a member of the Campus Recreation and Wellness Board, and a coach for the women's club soccer team. She is currently the personnel chair for her sorority, Chi Omega, and plans to run for the treasurer position in the University's student government. Taylor is an exceptional young lady, but not just for those reasons.

At the young age of 21, Taylor was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her ordeal started early in her college tenure. She had a couple of bouts of pneumonia and was forced to quit the soccer team due to health problems, but it wasn't until this past October that her life changed.

During her fall break, she developed severe abdominal cramps and had to be rushed to the emergency room by her sister because she thought her appendix was rupturing. It turned out to be much worse. The doctors told her they had found a mass 2.5 by 3 cm on her left lung.

Taylor had never smoked. As a life-long athlete, she could not afford to, but she was forced to face the irony that she had lung cancer, and her ordeal was just beginning.

On November 14th, she finally had her surgery at Duke. Prior to surgery, her surgeon informed her that of the over 2,000 people on which he had performed the surgery, she had the unique distinction of being the second youngest.

The surgery lasted five hours and she had to keep a tube inserted inside her chest for five days. She also was told that her left lung had collapsed and it could have been like that for over two years, during which time she was playing competitive soccer.

After the operation, she remained hospitalized for seven days and then she had to fight through an extensive and arduous recovery.

"I would sit up and be out of breath. I was lying on my back for at least a month," she said. "Because I was so young, I wasn't prepared emotionally or physically for something like that. It's really hard to explain the pain, but it's not something anyone should ever have to go through."

Unfortunately, Taylor has a history of lung cancer in her family. Her grandmother died of lung cancer 40 days after she was diagnosed; her great grandfather died because of it, and her great uncle is fighting it right now. All occurrences of lung cancer are on her mother's side of the family. She is one of five children, so now more than ever, her siblings will be careful to watch for symptoms.

Today she is not jaded by her experience, rather she is hopeful. She still plays intramural sports intermittently and she is planning to run the three miles of the next Free to BreatheTM event November 8, in Raleigh. Beyond that, she plans to build the strength to run a full marathon some time down the road.

Taylor serves as an example, not simply for her innumerable talents, her courage and fortitude, but also because of her story. It teaches those who listen that cancer is indiscriminate. It can strike you regardless of your age or lifestyle.

Taylor said, "When people see me now their jaws drop when they hear what I have been through and wonder how it is even possible."

Taylor joined the North Carolina Lung Cancer Partnership in the hopes of raising awareness to a disease that deserves more attention.

"A lot of people, when they hear 'lung cancer' they think old and half-dead and they don't bother to do anything to help, and I am a walking example of how that is not the case," she said. "I want to get the message out that it does affect more people than you would think. I want people to hear my story, get informed, and take action."

She goes in for a CT scan every three months and she currently has an 80% chance that the cancer will never return.

"I have been given the chance to live again. I know much is expected of me and I try to give as much as I can," Taylor said.

Written by: Eric Cipau

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