"Now I know what the word empowerment means . . . It was up to me to make the best of my situation."

When children and teenagers ask grown-up questions it's often a sign of approaching maturity.

Kristen Morton of Austin holds firm to the belief that young cancer patients should ask mature questions to better cope with their disease. The 23-year-old Texan had plenty of questions for her ear-nose-and-throat (ENT) doctor back when she was a junior in high school more than 6 years ago.

The doctor had diagnosed a bothersome lump in Morton's tongue as a minor injury, she says, likely caused by biting the tongue and causing it to get infected and inflamed. But Morton, then 16, had a nagging suspicion her condition was more serious.

She recalls asking her ENT doctor a few more details, like 'why hadn't the tongue lump shrunk, and why had it remained hard after a week on an anti-inflammatory medication?' She also wanted to know if seeing spots of blood when she brushed her teeth was serious.

Her grown-up questions paid off, Morton says. The doctor agreed to a biopsy and the results came back positive for squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. After confirming the diagnosis through an oncologist, Morton underwent surgery to remove the cancer followed by several months of radiation therapy.

Now a college graduate, Morton is a proponent of patients accepting responsibility by listening to their medical-care providers, doing at-home research and asking for more guidance. Those tactics better inform medical-care decisions at any age, she says.

At her first pediatric oncology appointment in Fort Worth, Morton's doctor and nurse said they had never seen a case of tongue cancer before and were unsure of the best treatment method. So they gave the patient various treatment options, and then asked her to choose.

Morton says she turned to the American Cancer Society's patient information on www.cancer.org, and asked a relative, a licensed physician, for guidance. Within a few days Morton says she had chosen her cancer treatment -- surgery followed by radiation therapy.

It's a decision she, her parents, her relatives and her friends are glad she chose, Morton says. She is now past her 5-year mark for cancer survival.

"Now I know what the word empowerment means," Morton says. "Granted my cancer wasn't life threatening, but still, I faced the very real risk of losing the ability to speak. It was up to me to make the best of my situation."

Luckily, Morton retained her ability to speak, though there was a slight speech impediment that she learned to overcome.

The only other long-term side effect of Morton's cancer treatment is a diminished ability to taste food, which is not a big deal, she says.

Because of her radiation treatments, which also exposed her head and neck to the high-energy beams, Morton must keep a close watch on her hearing, jaw-bone density and thyroid function.

In the years since her diagnosis, she was awarded an American Cancer Society scholarship, which she used to complete her biology degree. Now she's planning on going back to school to earn her master's degree, with the hope of becoming a physician's assistant.

She helped start the first Relay For Life event held at her college town of Kerrville, Texas, and eventually served on the state's youth planning committee for Relay For Life.

Last summer she volunteered at Camp Discovery, also in Kerrville. The camp is a week-long summer event for 150 children and teens with cancer held on the 500-acre Texas Lions Camp.

Paula Holland is the camp staff director. She said Camp Discovery is funded by the American Cancer Society's High Plains Division and by corporate and individual donors, but relies on 100-plus volunteer camp counselors to make it safe and fun.

The benefit of having young adults like Morton at the camp is that child cancer patients get to see that a normal, productive life is a real possibility. And the campers get to see that others have gone through what they're now facing and made it on the other side, Holland says.

"They become part of this family," she says. "That's very empowering for a child who's used to being treated different from everybody else."

For Morton, her cancer survivor story and her continued volunteer work has given her very mature outlook on life.

"At 16 and 17 years old, I didn't quite know who I was, yet I have been able to plan on giving back to people who helped me and helping others who have cancer," Morton says. "I didn’t have to wait for a career to help people, I decided I can start volunteering right away."