MILWAUKEE — Colton Herbert is a senior at Marquette University. He’s a trombone player in the school’s pep band and says he loves volunteering and working with Engineers without Borders.
“I’m majoring in civil engineering with a focus on environmental engineering,” Herbert shared.
He’ll be joining hundreds of others in gaining his diploma Saturday at Fiserv Forum with Marquette’s class of 2023.
But his road to graduation looked very different than his peers.
“This was just something I never thought I would ever have to go through.”
In January of 2022, Colton had just finished up his first semester of senior year and was on vacation with his family when he began feeling extreme pain that sent him to the emergency room.
A CT scan then showed a mass the size of a small cantaloupe in his pelvis.
“It was kind of a shock because I was perfectly fine,” Colton recalled. “Never felt any lumps, never had any health issues in my life except I broke my arm when I was in fourth grade.”
Many tests and biopsies later, he was diagnosed with ‘Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor, an extremely rare form of sarcoma.
The first case was recorded in 1989 and only 200 people have been diagnosed with it since then.
“It was about a week, week and a half where I went from being fine to being diagnosed with cancer and a really rare form of it,” he said.
Colton’s journey to healing - with surgeries and dozens of rounds of chemo and radiation - became his full-time job.
That meant school, for the time being, needed to take a backseat. His journey, both physically and mentally, was anything but easy.
“It took a major toll on my body. A lot of the doctors and oncologists were saying ‘It’s incurable we’re just trying to give you more time, we’re just trying to prolong your life…’ It’s really hard when I’m hearing that to keep being motivated, to keep doing this."
But through his faith, his family, and his will to get better Colton’s outlook shifted.
“I really believe I’m gonna get through this. I think we’re given these challenges to show that we can get through this.”
That mindset carried him through his final semester of engineering while still balancing chemo treatments and their side effects.
He now has this message to anyone who may be going through the same thing he is: “You've made it through every challenge you've been through your whole life - what makes you think you wouldn’t get through this one?”
Colton is planning on getting his master’s in civil engineering for the next two years at Marquette and has big plans for his future.
He shared a quote with TMJ4's Mariam Mackar by Muhammed Ali during their conversation: “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.”
He says that message, and his faith, helped him get through some of his toughest times.
Colton and his family will be attending a run fundraising for sarcoma research in July.
You can find for details about the event here.
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