MERCER ISLAND, Wash. -- When Katie Tinnea reads to her first grade classroom at Newcastle Elementary School, there is a vocabulary word you can tell they've heard before."What's a word for 'never give up?'" she asked the children."Perseverance," the class chimes.It's a word Tinnea teaches by example. When she was only 28, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer."I was blindsided. And I don't wish this upon anyone. It's a really rough journey," Tinnea said. "I try to be very positive. I hit bumps and dips all along this crazy journey. Just last week I even found out that I have had some progression since starting chemo, but I choose to be positive."She chooses to be positive - she chooses to live - for her husband and their 18-month-old daughter Kennedy.Friends have rallied around Tinnea, using her favorite color of purple to promote strength and encourage people to get a colonoscopy. Everyone 50 and older should be screened. And if you have a family history of colon cancer, doctors recommend getting a colonoscopy 10 years prior to the age your relative was first diagnosed.Tinnea, it turns out, has an aunt who died of colon cancer.This weekend, the Mercer Island Rotary puts the spotlight on many people with the disease, including former KOMO producer Tricia Moen. Tricia bravely fought colon cancer and spread awareness and encouraged early detection before she died in May of last year."Because of that, we're going to award her our 2012 Faces of Courage award at the event this weekend," said Sam Sullivan of the Mercer Island Rotary. "Tricia was 39 when she passed away. One of her goals was to make her 40th birthday. She didn't make it. This is our 40th anniversary so we thought we'd honor her."Colon cancer is the No. 2 cancer death in the United States, and it is almost entirely preventable through screening. "So awareness is key in the elimination and prevention of the disease," Sullivan said."You can take a horrible diagnosis and turn it into, I'm going to use this opportunity to spread awareness," said Tinnea's best friend Sarah McKenzie as she recalled getting Tinnea's phone call the day she was diagnosed. "It just broke my heart. But since that phone call, she has just taken it and gone with it and said 'I'm going to do everything I can do. I have this disease but it doesn't have me.' "Perseverance isn't just a classroom lesson. It's a way of life.I have so much love and support around me and I feel so lucky to have all of that, that it would be just a tragedy if I just gave up," said Tinnea.If you would like to run, walk or support the Mercer Island Half Marathon to benefit colon cancer prevention, go to MercerIslandHalf.com