I almost fainted. There was no family history. I had been eating a vegetarian diet and I exercised.
I always felt like I was healthy; I never felt like anything was wrong with me. Until the morning that I had a massive heart attack. On the golf course, by myself.
Someone like me shouldnt be diagnosed with breast cancer, thats what was going through my mind. I wasnt thinking about a diagnosis. I was just doing what I was supposed to do, which was staying on top of my mammograms. It was a shock.
Just learning that you have MS is such a devastating shock.
I wasn't prepared to get a mammogram until I was 40 years old, like I'd been told. I never in my wildest dreams expected anything to be wrong.
It was a huge shock when my mum was diagnosed. She was 49 when she found a lump in one of her breasts and sensed something was wrong. At the time, we did a breast cancer campaign together. I still do a lot of charity runs.
Through my attempt to get pregnant through IVF, we sadly found out that I have early stages of breast cancer. It's been a shock.
When I was born, I was effectively dead. Weird, I know. The doctors couldn't get any reaction from me, so I had to be brought round, and although it seemed like I was okay, there were underlying problems.
It was a double jolt for me. The jolt of seeing my father slowly die, the jolt of knowing that I was diabetic and could meet the same fate if I didn't take care of myself.
I was a healthy young man, and I thought I was invincible before I was diagnosed with kidney disease.
We all have idealism. We think we're healthy and then, all of a sudden, one day, you have cancer. The truth has a mind of its own.
In 2005, I would have never guessed that I was at risk for a pulmonary embolism. I was 21 years-old, playing college soccer and just living the dream.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, like so many other people, my life changed forever.
With the arrogance of youth, I thought, 'I don't drink, don't smoke, I don't do drugs, so why would I get cancer?' The week I spent waiting for the result of the biopsy to see if it was malignant felt like the longest of my life.
When you're used to being healthy and strong and vibrant and everything and then - bang - overnight you're desperately ill, it's frightening.
When I got sick, it threw everything off course.
One of my friends, picture of health, worked out his whole life, never had a weight problem. Calls me up one day and says, 'I have pancreatic cancer.' Gone. I've lost too many friends.
I am incredibly lucky to be alive because one in three people who have strokes don't make it.
Despite the fact that one in every two men and one in every three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, no one ever expects it to happen to them. I surely didn't. I was an otherwise healthy 37-year-old when I was diagnosed in 1996 with multiple myeloma, the same rare cancer Tom Brokaw has.
The worst part about celebrating another birthday is the shock that you're only as well as you are.
Being diagnosed with diabetes can be a very scary thing, and it can easily make your life stand still for a moment.
When the doctor said I had diabetes, I conjured images of languishing on a chaise longue nibbling chocolates. I have no idea why I thought this.
Even families with health insurance are quite vulnerable to a severe economic reversal if someone gets sick.
The last decision I made was my health when I had a heart attack when I was 51.
In a sense, having cancer takes you by the shoulders and shakes you.
