TV reporter found out she had cancer after the viewer sent a worrisome email

“I said, “Look at this weird email I received right now,” recalls Price, an NBC affiliate research journalist. WFLA..

Seen by a woman outside the state Report by price She said she had found a problem with her in the evening news a few hours ago.

“Hi, just saw your news report,” wrote viewers. “I’m worried about the lump in my neck. Please have your thyroid examined. I remember my neck. Mines turned out to be cancer. Please take good care of yourself.”

Having never seen anything wrong with the appearance of her neck, Price said he didn’t think the message was worth considering seriously.

“He said,’you know, you said you felt you were a bit more tired than usual over the last few months,'” Price said. “He called me a doctor and told me I should check it out.”

A few weeks later, after undergoing an ultrasound and blood panel test, Price received some amazing news: she had papillary thyroid cancer that began to spread to her lymph nodes. Her doctor recommended that she undergo surgery as soon as possible.

“It was explained that there was a large nodule in the middle of the thyroid gland, which pushed the gland out and bulged from the sides of the neck,” Price said. “That’s what the woman who sent me an email noticed. Luckily she contacted me about it.”

On July 27, Price underwent surgery to remove the thyroid gland at Tampa General Hospital. Her surgeon also resected 19 cancerous lymph nodes, she said, and she was relieved to find out she didn’t need immediate follow-up treatment with the exception of daily hormone replacements. Did.

“It’s serendipity that someone noticed on TV and told her about it, but it’s not really unusual to find it this way,” said Price’s surgeon, Clayman Thyroid Center Tampa explains that a common symptom is a visible mass on the neck.

“Victoria is lucky because this was detected earlier,” he added.

Posted a few days before surgery twitter, Price warned WFLA viewers about her diagnosis and thanked observing strangers who might have saved her life.

“As a journalist, it was my best effort since the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote. “The endless shift of the endless news cycle. I covered the most important health story of the century, but my health was the furthest out of my mind. Until the viewer emailed me last month.

“Finally, I have cancer,” Price wrote. “And I owe it to one of the great @WFLA viewers who drew my attention. Tomorrow we’ll have a little break, but see you soon.”

She said she was surprised when her tweet immediately attracted 20,000 likes.

“I never expected this kind of reaction to happen a million years later,” she said. “Everyone’s kindness, affection, and interest are overwhelming.”

Now back at work, Price said he hopes to set up a foundation by the end of the year to raise awareness of thyroid cancer among young adults.

“I think it’s important to make this more often discussed, just as we talk about breast and prostate cancer,” Price said. “My goal is to develop a platform for young professionals who may be less likely to visit a doctor.”

Without the alert viewer, Price said he could have been doing it for months without knowing there was a problem.

“If I was an accountant working in the office? Or what if I worked at home myself?” she said. “I am lucky that many people can see me because of my work. It is very humble to know that this person took me some time to take this little email. Your health is yours Wealth—without it, you have nothing.”

When she learned she had cancer, the price was calming, she said, probably because of her journalistic background.

“I took a few seconds to process it and then said:’Oh, what is the game plan? What are we going to do about that?” “She said. Is the leader of the mess. We are always up to 30 seconds to the air time, covering the issues that need to be solved, so it takes a bit longer than the average person to rattle me I think.”

Price said the woman who found the suspicious lump in her neck was the mother of some children who didn’t want to pay any attention to potentially life-saving actions.

“We exchanged text back and forth, and hopes to get together someday,” she said. “I’m so incredibly grateful for what she did. If she hadn’t sent that email, I might have never seen my doctor, and the cancer It would have continued to grow.

“I really want to thank her for doing it,” she said.