I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia on December 27, 1999. I was 24.

People always tell you that when death or its possibility stares you in the face, you would see your whole life flash before you, all the good, the wrongs, the bad, the joys, the regrets.I don't recall getting any of that. All I had was a sickly panic that rose from within and the never-ending thought that I was too young to die.

I didn't think that there were still a thousand and one things I hadn't done. I believed that I had lived my life the way I chose. There wasn't much of a wanting to get out there to change things. Fear immobilised me somehow. I just kept thinking I was going to die.