I want to share my diagnosis with the world. Other lives will be saved through my experience and people won't have to look at cancer as being an end. It can be a beginning to a different experience.

Elsie Heckstall, a US Airways flight attendant and recruiter, lay minister, and Relay For Life team captain, considered herself "the epitome of good health" until her colon cancer diagnosis in January 1999.

In the fall of 1998, though she felt fit, Heckstall said, "Two things appeared to be abnormal. (There was) bright red blood in my stool for several months, and I was feeling a little bit fatigued," she said.

"But after going through chemotherapy for six months — it was like I was just a little tired!" she said and laughed, looking back on her experience.

When Heckstall finally saw her doctor, she was told to have a flexible sigmoidoscopy or 'flex sig' done, so she made an appointment.

"I was feeling very uncomfortable the day I went in there — mentally," she said. While she wasn't one to be swayed by others' opinions, this time, she was. "I talked to a lot of people about it (the flex sig) and they were telling me how awful the test was. One friend even said 'oh, Elsie, that's the most awful test I've taken, it's worse than childbirth!' And I said, 'it can't be that bad!'"

Heckstall said her fear held her hostage. The day of the procedure she was late to the doctor's office and had to reschedule. Then she canceled her next two appointments.

"I'm healthy as a horse," Heckstall said she thought at the time. "Let's just get this taken care of at my leisure, so to speak." She said she knew she needed to follow up because she was still seeing the blood.

"But I just didn't feel like it was a priority for me at that time," she said. "I was not having any type of physical discomfort, so I'm thinking, 'nothing's wrong.'"

During November of that year, Heckstall's church was preparing for a blood drive. At a bible study one night, she encouraged church members who had never given blood to get over their fear and donate. Her words came back to her later and she realized she needed to face her own fear.

"I was like, wow, here I am sharing this word with other people, and I am in bondage about this flex sig! And then, God just removed that fear from me," she said.

But, when she called for an appointment, the next available one was more than four weeks away. Heckstall recalls that her doctor said, "Ms. Heckstall, I see that you canceled two appointments for your flex sig, so I'm going to act like your mother right now. YOU CANNOT CANCEL YOUR NEXT ONE."

She kept the appointment, but the flex sig equipment was undergoing repair, so she was scheduled for a barium enema in January.

Heckstall remembered the nurse calling and saying, "(The doctor) would like for you to come in to discuss the results of your barium enema."

Heckstall said, "Oh, really? Well, I am scheduled to go out of town tomorrow."

The nurse said, "The doctor really would like to see you. The doctor has designated a time for you to come in."

"Well, good! Since she has designated a time, can we just do it by telephone?" Heckstall asked.

"Ms Heckstall. The doctor — really — wants —you — to COME IN," the nurse emphasized.

"And I'm thinking it’s not anything major, and I said, 'oh, okay,'" Heckstall recalled.

Soon after this conversation, a biopsy during a colonoscopy revealed that she had colon cancer.

"I prayed for two things," she said. "God-fearing physicians and a strong support system, and God delivered on both of those. People just came out of the woodwork!" Family, friends, neighbors, church members, and co-workers all lent a hand.

Heckstall said her doctor told her if she had undergone the flex sig, there was a chance it might have missed her cancer. Because of the location of the tumor, it could have been just beyond the instrument's range. The barium enema caught it.

Surgery was scheduled, and Heckstall "packed like I was going to Europe," she said. "I had never been in the hospital." She described her room as "a revolving door, nonstop! I was in my outfits, had my lipstick on, my hair situated — I was stylin' in the hospital."

But it wasn't just for Heckstall's spirits. Characteristically, she was lifting everyone else's.

During an early February surgery, doctors removed about 18 inches of her colon and 19 lymph nodes.

Divorced for many years and still single, the independent Heckstall felt humbled by the experience. "It's important to have a support system," she said. "But in order to have (one), we have to open up to people. We have to allow people to realize we’re human. I had to allow people to help me."

She discovered Relay For Life while getting chemotherapy — a flyer about the event was posted on the wall.

"When I called (the American Cancer Society) and heard what it was, I said, 'sign me up!'" She captained her community's team that year, while still undergoing chemotherapy. In 2000 and 2001, she captained two teams the same weekend. In 2002, she's a team captain once again.