A five-year journey through trips to and from Houston, treatments and clinical trials, periods of remission and getting back on top, Turner, still not 100 percent cancer free, is feeling more confident than ever, is a newlywed in her first year of marriage and opening up about sun safety.
As the kind of girl who spent all day out in the sun playing soccer with her sisters, never paying too much attention to what the consequences may be, Turner is reaching out to young people to warn them.
"Not protecting your skin is deadly. You have to know that it can be you. All the old people alive today weren't going to tanning beds when they were young," Turner said.
Part of Turner's mission to speak out against cancer is to raise awareness and to help people feel comfortable talking about their experiences.
"I want to be somebody people can look up to," Turner said. "I want people to feel at ease asking me questions."
She went from being a normal college student to battling stage three malignant melanoma in a span of one year.
"Four years ago, it felt like they took it out and I was done," Turner said. "And now, I still have tumors and I'm not cancer free."
Turner's initial diagnosis led to the removal of a mole at the base of her head her older sister found while doing her
hair. One year later she had a lump on her neck ? the cancer had spread."It was a lot of fear. I was 20 years old; I was just trying to be a normal student," Turner said. "My family was really strong. I had friends driving me to and from chemo. You really learn who your friends are."
Turner completed her chemotherapy treatments and had the tumors removed. The next four years of her life appeared to be back on track. She made a vow to make herself the healthiest she could be and began training for a marathon. Turner still saw her doctors in Houston every three months, making sure the cancer stayed at bay.
After finishing a 10-mile marathon with her husband and friends, Turner got on a plane for her routine checkup. Surprised at how great she was feeling, doctors were reluctant to announce she had a golf ball sized tumor growing in her liver.
"Within a day, my gut looked six months pregnant," Turner said.
She was diagnosed with stage four malignant melanoma. "At stage four cancer, of course your mind wanders," Turner said. "There are no stages after four."
Determined to fight cancer for the second time, Turner interpreted this as, "God helping us go down our road."
"I look back and that's when we were falling in love," Turner said about her husband Sean. "I look back and it's really special to me. God was guiding me."
The American Cancer Society gives stage four patients a 15 to 20 percent five year survival rate.
"There has to be somebody," said Turner. "Why can't that 15 percent be me? I have to believe a 25-year-old can fight it."
Turner had the tumors and two inches of her intestine removed and after 14 days in recovery she began clinical trials.
"After three weeks, I was starting to feel good again," she said. "One night my stomach started to hurt and the next day it looked awful. I had another surgery and they took the tumors out. It was like a two steps forward, one step back type of scenario."
Beginning a new biochemo therapy, Erin started to lose her hair. Her father and husband helped shave her head.
"I remember being so happy," she said.
Since her release in November, the day before Thanksgiving, Turner has been on a new treatment. Her doctors in Houston have said her tumors are shrinking and she is recovering in the comfort of her own home. Her last surgery, performed in May 2013, was to relieve pain from her spleen that was affecting her breathing.
"There are new studies and clinical trials coming out all the time. Five years ago they didn't have the same clinicals that I'm on now," Turner said. "There has to be someone who survives, so why can't it be you?"
Reflecting on the last five years of her courageous battle, Turner has a surprisingly grateful outlook on how cancer has changed her life.
"It's showed me that there are so many good people in life. People are real good," she said. "It's showed me what love can make you overcome."
In 2011, Turner lost her mother, Cindy Wright, to cancer and because of her, will continue making speeches and fundraising on behalf of Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.
"My mom was always so happy, even up until her last weeks she was eating vegetables and making me do leg exercises with her," Turner said. "She's the one that wanted to be around people like her. They celebrate survivorship, the caregivers who don't get the credit they deserve and the people who just support finding a cure."
Since she's started recovery at home, Turner plans to continue speaking out about cancer and sun safety, running marathons and hopes to one day have her own fitness business.
Turner wants to remind people to, "be happy that you saw today." Survivorship means more than overcoming cancer for the second time, it means more than following a healthy lifestyle.
"It means being faced with something that you feel is maybe something you can't overcome and beating it; but more than beating it, coming out 100 times better and helping others with it," she said.
Jocelyn Apodaca may be reached at 575-541-5444. Follow her on Twitter @jocelynapodaca.
Relay for Life
When: 6 p.m., Aug. 23 and 24
Where: Ron T Gallo T-Ball Complex, 1605 E. Hadley
Info: There is no specific deadline for volunteers, sponsors, or teams, but if you would like an American Cancer Society T-shirt, orders are due July 22. For information, visit relayforlife.org/lascrucesnm or call Alfred Gutierrez at 575-496-0362.
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