Chemotherapy drugs have been successfully treating cancer patients for decades. Unfortunately for some, the side effects last a lifetime.

"After initially I found blood in my stool, I started having really bad abdominal pain, starting to throw up things I ate,” said Molly McMaster.

She was a 22-year-old competitive athlete who loved ice hockey. A rising star in her prime aiming for an Olympic try out then her world turned upside down.

"Symptoms were getting bad. In the end I couldn't eat anything, just was drinking just water,” McMaster said.

After six months of feeling horrible, she headed back home only to end up in the hospital the day she arrived.

"They said we don't know is in there but you have total blockage in your large intestines and it has to come out. I had surgery the following day. He removed 25 inches of my large intestines and a tumor the size of my doctor’s two fists. And I had stage two colon cancer," said McMaster.

It was her 23rd birthday and she was just told she was facing a life threatening illness.

"I’m going to die. I have cancer and now I have to get chemotherapy and I don't want to get chemo; go through that literally sitting there. He was sitting there talking to me and I am thinking of a way how I can kill myself because I 'want to go through chemo,” she said.

She did go through chemo, nine months of it and did very well. Next, the aftermath; life long side effects like infertility.

“My first appointment with my oncologist is where the fertility issue came up,” McMaster said.
"I can't imagine not having the gift of being able to be a mom.”

Then she met her husband Sergy. They wanted kids. But they wondered did the chemo kill her chances of getting pregnant?

"Can I have babies? So it was frustrating and scary and I remember talking to my oncologist about it and he said, ‘I don't know,’" she said.

They had hope and it worked. She got pregnant and healthy Kyril was born on Christmas Eve. Another baby boy is due in a month. Her prayers have been answered, twice.

“Blessed is an understatement. This is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” McMaster said.

It's been important to stay connected to other cancer survivors and she's done just that through an organization she founded called the Colon Club.

Over the last 10 years, Molly has been busy raising money, awareness and support for others who have been diagnosed with cancer. She's created a calendar, each month has a picture of someone else who has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer and everyone in the calendar is under the age of 50.

“It really truly can happen to anyone even though the statistics they all say when you turn fifty you get your colonoscopy, that can be too late in many cases,” said McMaster.

It looks like her cancer is gone for good. Her future days will be spent on being a mom.

“I am going to take time off working and enjoy my two little munchkins, you know they are going to be young for so long and unfortunately, I don't think colon cancer is going anywhere,” said McMaster.