Victoria Price is usually the one advocating for the public as an investigative reporter for NBC affiliate WFLA in Florida.
It turns out eagle-eyed viewers in the Tampa area were also looking out for her as well. Price shared on Thursday that she found out she has thyroid cancer after a viewer emailed her about a lump she saw on Price's neck.
Price wrote in a message on Instagram and Twitter that an unidentified woman reached out to her last month because the lump looked similar to one the viewer had that turned out to be cancer.
"8 on Your Side isn't just a catchphrase at WFLA. 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 wrote.
"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."
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Price said she will be undergoing surgery on Monday to remove the tumor, her thyroid 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," she wrote.
She added in a reply on Twitter that chemotherapy "is not in the cards" at this time.
Price expressed her gratitude at the simple gesture that may have prevented a much worse situation.
"Had I never received that email, I never would have called my doctor," she wrote. "The cancer would have continued to spread. It's a scary and humbling thought.
"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?"
A commenter noted that the lump on Price's neck was not easy to see and asked for tips on how to detect one. Price shared a screenshot of her from a WFLA broadcast to point it out.
"I agree, not the easiest to see," she replied. "It’s not super obvious unless you know what to look for. This screenshot shows it a bit better. I’m still learning but doc explained that the tumor is in the middle of my thyroid, pushing the glands up and out, hence the subtle protrusion."
Price also urged another commenter to see a doctor after she said she was putting off getting checked despite her thyroid being "very pronounced."
"If it’s any reassurance, I was told most thyroid nodules turn out to be benign," Price replied. "It could also be hypo/hyperthyroidism, versus cancer. But again, I would highly suggest going ASAP. Good luck."
There have been 52,890 new cases of thyroid cancer this year, and women are three times more likely to develop it than men, according to the American Cancer Society. It was the most rapidly increasing cancer in the country until recently, mainly due to increased testing and improved diagnostic procedures, according to the ACS.
Price's diagnosis thanks to a viewer's help is similar to "Inside Edition" host Deborah Norville, a former TODAY co-host who underwent surgery last year to remove a cancerous thyroid nodule after a viewer brought a lump to her attention.
The same thing happened in 2013 to Tarek El Moussa, a star of the HGTV reality series "Flip or Flop," who learned he had stage 2 thyroid cancer after a registered nurse watching the show spotted a lump on his neck and contacted producers.