I’m not invincible…every moment I have needs to be used.

"I'm the typical tomboy all grown up," said Tiffany Hull. While the other seven-year-olds in her town were selling Girl Scout cookies, she said, she was riding her motorcycle. Every Friday night, she raced down at the track. It's a family thing, she said.

Her two younger brothers are beginning their racing careers now, with the support of their parents. "If it hadn’t been for a bad spill at the end of the season…I would be racing on the motorcycle circuit today," she said.

She had "girly activities to remind me that I was female," — ballet, jazz, and tap — and "to keep me busy." She said her parents still had to find a way to channel all that excess energy.

Soccer was the answer. Hull started playing at six. In high school, she started on the varsity team all four years. Team captain her junior and senior years, she was all-district and defender of the year for four years.

Hull's mother, Karon, said she was always at the top of her class. In May of 2000, she graduated from Cy-Fair High School in Cypress, Texas, with honors.

Recruited by Arkansas State University (ASU), she was awarded a scholarship, was named captain of her soccer team as a freshman — "a very big honor," said Karon — and was diagnosed with lymphoma after her first semester.

"A wonderful career came to a screeching halt," her mother said.

At first, Hull's coach thought her leg pain was caused by a stress fracture. But it wasn’t. "Our team doctor had shown me the scans and you could clearly see the mass in my right tibia that should not have been there," she said.

Her doctor listed the possibilities: bone infection, dead bone, or bone cancer. She was scheduled for a biopsy on a Wednesday in January 2001. While bone cancer and dead bone were ruled out, Ewing's Sarcoma was added to the list of possibilities. She left the hospital on Sunday. "On Thursday we discovered that I had B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma," she said.

"My first reaction was shock," she said. "Next I wanted to know if I was curable. Then I wondered if I would be able to play again and if not, what I would do about college."

"Treatment was an ordeal," Hull said. "It was unlike anything that I had ever gone through. I received my chemo in my doctor’s office. I would get to my doctor’s office at 8 a.m. and would sit until about 4 p.m. while they administered each drug. My parents and I would pack a bag of movies, magazines, books, and games to play. Each treatment room had its own recliner and TV/VCR combo."

"At about lunch time, my dad would go get us something to eat," Hull recounts. "It was kind of like a special day every three weeks that my parents and I got to spend together, only it had this dreary, gloomy, overcast atmosphere to it.

"The treatment was really easy. The nurse would hook up the IV to my central line. I think they had the hardest part. I just had to sit there," she said.

"The actual treatment usually took effect by the time we left the doctor’s office," Hull explained. "While the list of side effects was lengthy, I only experienced a few." She said her hair fell out, "but it was great not having to shave for three months! Some days I just didn’t get out of bed because I didn’t have the energy to do anything. I never lost my appetite; although, I do think I started to eat more.

"One day, about two days after treatment, I would get sick and spend most of the day in the bathroom. I would spend all day sitting by the toilet unable to keep any food or drink down," she said. "As for coping strategy, I would say it just had to be the thought of getting through to return to a normal life and back to college and playing.

"Sometimes I worried about my ability to play once I got my release. In fact I almost quit soccer and returned to Texas. But I decided to give it one more chance, got my release, and went back," said Hull.

In August 2001, Hull returned to ASU as a freshman. She even started working out with the soccer team, though she was unable to play until January 2002.

"When I came back to college, I wasn’t that far behind," Hull said. "With summer school I could have been right on track. However, I decided to change my major and the program I need to enter takes longer than necessary so I am at step one again.

"Going back was exciting. It was great getting back and seeing my old team members and friends. Everyone at school had showed a lot of support," Hull said.

Before chemo, she said, her hair was dirty blond with different hues from coloring. In August it had just started growing back, and came in dark brown at first, and curly. It's almost shoulder-length now, she said.

Apart from this, "I didn’t feel very different," she said, "just older and more mature but ready to get back to business.

"I think my ordeal has brought me closer to all of my teammates," she said. Her teammate, Amanda, has a brother with cancer, which Hull said has brought them closer, as Amanda turned to Hull with her questions.

"Cancer has definitely changed my outlook on life. I've realized that if there is something I want, then I need to take the steps to get it and not wait on someone to get it for me. It also made me realize that I’m not invincible and that every moment I have needs to be used," she said.

"Life is precious and not something to be wasted," Hull said. "I’m trying to live my life to the fullest and do everything that I want to do and not worry about what others think and want me to do."