-I had just gotten back from Hawaii, girls trip.
I went to the gym, got off the treadmill. My legs were doing this throbbing thing.
And I felt, you know, my leg and I felt a lump in there.
I had a feeling about it. It doesn't matter how old I am, that's not supposed to be there.
I went and found an oncologist. I could tell by the look on his face that it wasn't supposed to be there.
So at 22 years old, the first surgery I'd ever had,
I woke up and my father was in the room next to me and he said, and I'll never forget,
it's cancer.
At 22 years old, I didn't know enough about it. But I knew that's not a good thing.
Well what do I do now?
In a rush, who do we go to?
I mean, who's the best? Everyone wants the best.
And we got in touch with Dr. Sender at UCI Health.
-I like Cindy's attitude and she went on the positive.
She said, "are there survivors?" Yes. "Well, I'm gonna be one of them."
and that seemed to be her attitude.
How do I live my life? What do I need to go through? Am I doing the right thing? Do I know my stuff?
-They said that it was stage 3B Melanoma.
It was very well explained and Dr. Sender was easy to talk to and made me feel comfortable.
I left there not feeling like I wasn't going to survive this. I can do this, we can do this.
-She took it in her stride, she was like okay tell me what I need to do.
This is an irritation in my life, but I want to do it and get on.
I have things to do, places to go, people to meet, a life to lead.
-When I would go to UC Irvine Health, it felt like my home away from home.
And it becomes your home away from home because that's where you're getting all your treatment.
So it needs, it's important to choose people that are going to treat you like family.
At UC Irvine Health, you're not a statistic, you're not a number, you're human being.
Whether you're a young adult or an older adults, or a child,
they're always going to be a part of your life. They're part of the reason why you're here.
When you have a tumor and you have it removed,
they usually do what's called a lymph node dissection.
Because having a lymph node dissection which saves your life, it leaves you with other conditions.
One being lymphedema and I have lived with lymphedema for ten years
and I've learned how to manage it very well.
Dr. Sender and UCI Health was so supportive of my positive attitude,
supportive of everything that you're going to go through after the diagnosis,
and making your mindset comfortable knowing that you're going to be coming
here for a long time and you're going to be taken care of.
He's almost like your cheerleader.
-The one question we always ask on any new visit is to stop and say to the patient, "who are you?"
Not what your disease is, we already got that. I have pieces of paper and I have
a pathology report and x-ray report and scan report.
We want to know the person. What did they want to become? What do they want to do with their life?
And then we tell them, one day when their cured, go on and do the things you really want to do.
Make your life meaningful by taking advantage.
And sometimes when you do that - the experience of cancer can be horrible -
well the experience of cancer can be life-affirming.
When you look at Cindy, I think she's an example of life affirming.
-I definitely appreciate the small things now, the little things that I love.
Hanging out with my family, my fans - as I say my #1 fans - going to hockey games, and you know, hanging out with my fiancé.
Being newly engaged is very special to me that, you know, I have that support whether I need it or not - forever.
At 22, I was always thinking about how am I going to help people in my life,
am I going to make a difference?
And ten years later, I'm a survivor and I'm helping other people who also survived, is in a similar situation that I was in.
People tell me that I am inspiring and, to me, my doctors are inspiring.
So I it makes me feel really good when I know that I can help other people.
There's nothing more rewarding than turning an adversity into something positive.