A Florida news reporter is very thankful after she received a health tip from a viewer.
WFLA reporter Victoria Price shared on Twitter that she has been diagnosed with cancer after a viewer emailed her last month about a lump on her neck. Now, Price will have surgery to remove the tumor, as well as some thyroid and lymph nodes. The viewer had seen the lump during an on-air broadcast.
“A viewer emailed me last month,” Price wrote on Twitter. “She saw a lump on my neck. Said it reminded her of her own. Hers was cancer. Turns out, mine is too.”
The reporter wrote about how she’s been hyper-focused on covering the COVID-19 pandemic, that she didn’t think to check on her own health.
“As a journalist, it's been full throttle since the pandemic began. Never-ending shifts in a never-ending news cycle,” Price wrote. “Adjusting to remote workflows and in my case, taking on a new investigative role. We were covering the most important health story in a century, but my own health was the farthest thing from my mind.”
Because of the email, the doctors told Price that she has a tumor “in the middle of my thyroid, pushing the glands up and out,” which created a “subtle protrusion”—a.k.a. the growth that the viewer noticed. The doctors also said that the infection was spreading.
“Had I never received that email, I never would have called my doctor. The cancer would have continued to spread. It's a scary and humbling thought,” Price said. “I will forever be grateful to the woman who went out of her way to email me, a total stranger. She had zero obligation to, but she did anyway.”
Price said her doctors believe this will be her “first and last procedure.” She also shared a screenshot of the email from the viewer:
“Hi, just saw your news report. What concerned me is the lump on your neck. Please have your thyroid checked. Reminds me of my neck. Mine turned out to be cancer. Take care of yourself.”
