Florida TV Journalist Victoria Price Recovered From Thyroid Cancer

UPDATE: Florida TV reporter Victoria Price is now “90 percent back to normal” after treatment for thyroid cancer that was tipped by an alert TV viewer.

Price, who works for WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa, Florida, appeared on the Today show Tuesday to talk about her experience. She claimed she initially didn’t think much of the life-saving email from the viewer who spotted a lump on her neck. .

“I was totally going to dismiss it. I was like, ‘I don’t see anything,’ ” she told the “TODAY” show.

Thanks to a persistent boyfriend, though, she did go to a doctor. “I’m glad that I listened to him because that set the process into motion,” she said.

Price had a thyroid nodule that was pushing her gland out to the side of her neck. The cancer had spread into her lymph nodes.

“The love and support has been the most phenomenal thing I’ve experienced in my entire life,” she said. “It’s really helped to power me through this, keep a really positive attitude.”

EARLIER: Florida broadcast journalist Victoria Price was warned to consult a doctor by an alert viewer who noticed a lump on her throat. As it turned out, she had thyroid cancer, and likely caught it in time.

Price, an investigative journalist at WFLA News in Tampa Bay, Florida, tweeted out the story on Thursday via Twitter.

“‘8 on Your Side’ isn’t just a catchphrase at WFLA,” she wrote. “It’s our cornerstone. But the roles recently reversed when I found a viewer on MY side, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Price has been covering pandemic issues for WFLA.

“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. “Until a viewer emailed me last month. She saw a lump on my neck. Said it reminded her of her own. Hers was cancer.”

Price went to her doctor and discovered the lump was a protrusion as a result of a tumor pressing on her thyroid. She will be undergoing surgery to have the thyroid and some lymph nodes removed on Monday.

“Doctor says it’s spreading, but not too much, and we’re hopeful this will be my first and last procedure,” she said, adding in another tweet that she will not undergo chemotherapy.

If caught early and hasn’t extensively spread to the lymph nodes, thyroid cancer is one of the most survivable type of cancer.

The viewer’s email:

“Hi, just saw your news report. What concerned me is the lump on your neck,” the viewer’s message said, according to a screen grab shared by Price. “Please have your thyroid checked. Reminds me of my neck. Mine turned out to be cancer. Take care of yourself.”

Price mused on how lucky she was to have received the email.

“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,” she 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. Talk about being on your side, huh?”

Price isn’t the first TV star to receive a remote medical advice on the thyroid. HGTV’s Tarek El-Moussa of Flip Or Flop was similarly urged by a viewer who noticed a lump to have it checked out. His turned out to be thyroid cancer and he had it removed, returning to work on the show.

In 2019, Inside Edition host Deborah Norville also had a viewer spot a lump, and she later had surgery to remove her thyroid nodule. reported Today.