After surviving his battle with Hodgkin lymphoma, Alex Courtney made a vow.

Courtney, currently a senior in animal ecology, made a promise to turn his unhealthy lifestyle around and become a positive mentor for cancer survivors.

Courtney had taken the semester off from Iowa State and was back home in New Jersey when he was diagnosed.

For months he thought he had the flu and bad allergies.

In November 2011, Courtney went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for his chest pains, and that was when he found out about the cancer.

When Courtney was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Hodgkin lymphoma at 19 years old, he was told he had 56 tumors filling up his chest cavity, one being the size of a grapefruit on his lung.

“It was definitely like a movie,” Courtney said. “We all cried for like 20 minutes, and then we were like, ‘OK, we have to deal with this.’”

The doctors told Courtney he had a 40 percent chance of surviving.

“With those odds, you don’t have a bright light,” Courtney said. “I had more of a chance of dying than I did of living. I knew that if I could come out on top, then it’s my duty to help the kids who are going through it and to be a voice for the cancer community.”

Courtney’s family moved to Baltimore where he underwent six months of intensive chemotherapy treatment every other week.

Throughout treatment, Courtney gained almost 75 pounds. By the time treatment was over, he knew he needed to make a lifestyle change.

“I wanted to figure out the best way to get back in shape, and at the same time, a way to help other kids who are going through or who have gone through treatment and have hit rock bottom where they’re weak or they have to start over now that their treatment’s done,” Courtney said.

He saw a commercial for MTV’s “Made” and decided to look into applying. “Made” is a TV series that focuses on self-improvement through professional guidance.

Four days after sending a video submission into MTV, the show contacted him, asking if it could come to his house and film to see if it was something it wanted to turn into a full episode.

The producers met with Courtney and his family and friends and decided to start officially filming his story for the show when Courtney came back to Iowa State for spring 2013 classes.

Throughout the two and a half months of filming, Courtney had to text the video team as soon as he woke up, and it would film his entire day — cooking meals, working out, hanging out with friends and even going back to Maryland to film one of Courtney’s routine appointments to make sure the cancer hadn’t returned.

Courtney was given a “Made” coach to help him attain his goals. Samantha Carrie Johnson, a chef and lifestyle educator, was selected to be Courtney’s.

“Everybody has a mentor in any capacity in life — someone to give them direction or answer questions they don’t have the answers to,” Johnson said.

Johnson helped Courtney approach food in a different way and understand how to create a nutritionally balanced meal. That would help him lose weight and stay healthy.

Along with Johnson, Courtney also worked with a personal trainer. Jake Belitz, personal training director of Fitness World, was selected after producers determined he would be a good fit for Courtney’s personality.

The game plan for Courtney’s workout routine was consistent exercise and a program that kept him safe from being injured.

Courtney’s workouts included high-intensity interval training to ramp up his metabolism and a lot of strength training. Courtney had lost quite a bit of muscle from his chemotherapy treatments, so he had to rebuild muscle strength.

“Alex had a lot of things going on in his life,” Belitz said. “Trying to balance school, friends and the fashion show, along with the emotional issues that come with cancer, was a challenge. We took it day by day.”

After working with Johnson and Belitz for two and a half months, the producers left for three weeks to see what Courtney could do on his own. Through Courtney’s workouts with Belitz and his focus on healthy eating habits with Johnson, Courtney lost a total of 40 pounds while on the show.

Both of Courtney’s “Made” coaches still keep in touch with him regularly.

“I care about Alex so much,” Johnson said. “It’s such a closeness and a bond that you can’t really walk away from because this is real life. Since we were working to make a lifestyle change — not just to turn him into a skateboarder or something like that — it’s much more deep than most other “Made” coach set-ups.”

Belitz agreed with Johnson. He said that he even watched the broadcast of the episode with Courtney.

“We created a connection in terms of understanding each other,” Belitz said. “It’s amazing to watch him and his smile and to relive all of the emotions he went through. He is such a positive human being. I hope people realize through this that there’s potential for anybody to achieve a goal.”

The most challenging part of this experience for Courtney was realizing people were going to see every aspect of his life, including working out, learning to cook and the stress of balancing everything.

“That was probably the hardest part, having to realize that people were going to be watching me throw up from working out hard, sweating, with my shirt off — you know, embarrassing things you don’t want people to see,” Courtney said. “Who wants to be seen when you’re out of shape with your shirt off?”

MTV started filming Courtney again last April for the fashion show — the showcase event of Courtney’s transformation. Courtney had three designers working together to come up with a couple of outfits for him to model.

“’Made’ always has a big ending event that shows your transformation off,” Courtney said. “For me, it was, ‘How could we show everyone my weight loss?’ They heard about the ISU fashion show and got me into that.”

Courtney said it is also important for him to still look healthy in the eyes of the kids he wants to inspire. Being more involved with outreach for cancer patients is Courtney’s next goal.

“When I was going through treatment, there was a girl sitting across from me who was an orphan in an orphanage, so she had to get treatments by herself,” Courtney said. “They had a social worker come and sit with her during her treatments. I was like, I have all my family and friends come and sit with me, and there’s this little girl who doesn’t have any family.

“Those people need a voice. People need to know that kids are going through this, and the kids need to understand that they’re not alone. There are other kids going through it. It gets better.”