A 28-year-old TV reporter who was diagnosed with cancer said the only reason she got tested was because of a viewer's email
- Victoria Price, a TV reporter in Florida, shared on Twitter that a viewer flagged to her what they thought appeared to be a cancerous growth in Price's neck.
- The viewer — who said they had a similar-looking lump in their neck, and it turned out to be thyroid cancer — flagged their concern in an email to Price.
- Price tweeted on Friday that she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and is having surgery on Monday to have the tumor removed.
- "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 wrote. "I will forever be thankful to the woman who went out of her way to email me, a total stranger."
Victoria Price, an investigative reporter for WFLA, an NBC-affiliate news network in Tampa, Florida, announced via Twitter on Friday that she has been diagnosed thyroid cancer — and that she wouldn't have known of the tumor if it weren't for an email from a viewer.
Price tweeted that last month, she received a message from an WFLA viewer, which read: "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."
In a personal essay on WFLA's website, Price said that the viewer signed their name after the brief message, and that was the entire email.
Price said that she was able to get the lump in her neck checked, and that earlier this week, she found out that it was cancerous, she said in a WFLA report. She said that she will have surgery on Monday to remove her thyroid, the tumor, and some lymph nodes.
"Doctor says it's spreading, but not too much, and we're hopeful this will be my first and last procedure," Price wrote on Twitter.
In her thread of tweets, Price shared a screenshot of a newscast where she's featured on the right-hand side and explained that although the lump in her neck was "not the easiest to see," the viewer was correct in pointing it out.
The American Cancer Society estimates that in the United States, there are about 52,890 new cases of thyroid cancer — with an estimate of 40,170 in women and 12,720 in men. The organization estimates that there will be 2,180 deaths from thyroid cancer this year.
"Thyroid cancer is commonly diagnosed at a younger age than most other adult cancers. And women are 3 times more likely to develop thyroid cancer than men," according to the American Cancer Society.
Price continued, thanking the stranger who emailed her.
"As for the woman who emailed me, I've yet to connect with her. I sent an empathic thank you email earlier this week but never heard back," Price wrote for WFLA. "Maybe she was a guardian angel? Who knows. If you're reading this, don't feel obligated to write back. You've already done so much more than you may realize."
"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 continued on Twitter. "I will forever be thankful to the woman who went out of her way to email me, a total stranger. She had zero obligation to, but she did anyway."
"Talk about being on your side, huh?" Price wrote, referencing WFLA's motto, "On your side."
Price and press representatives for WFLA did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.