Woman Who Appeared on HGTV Diagnosed with Cancer After Viewer Spots Lump
Many of us can envision a perfectly-located dream house that we’d love to own. For 32-year-old Nicole McGuinness, her dream house was on a beach in South Carolina.
She recently decided that she should find that house after she beat her battle with brain cancer. McGuinness and her father made an appearance on HGTV’s “Beachfront Bargain Hunt” to help her find her new home.
Viewers could certainly tell that she was excited to find her dream home by the beach. But ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr. Erich Voigt happened to see something else.
As the New York-based doctor was watching the episode, he noticed a small lump on McGuinness’ neck.
“I noticed that she had a lump in her neck,” Voigt told ABC News. “And as a head and neck surgeon, I’m trained to sort of notice these things.”
Voigt has worked on many similar cases before in his career, and he said the lump looked asymmetrical and the way it moved under her skin concerned him.
“I thought, I don’t think she knows she has this. I felt obliged and sort of guilty, like I should let her know,” he said. “I paused my TV and rewound it. I had to make a choice whether to ignore it or actively try to contact her.”
The doctor decided to reach out and find McGuinness, so on May 5, he posted a clip from the show on Facebook, hoping it would reach her.
“I am watching a tv show and notice this woman has a left thyroid mass. She needs a sonogram and fine needle biopsy,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “I wonder if she knows and hope it’s benign.”
Luckily, McGuinness did end up seeing the Facebook post two weeks after it was posted and decided to take Voigt’s advice. She went to her doctor, and sure enough, she had thyroid cancer.
“It’s just a miracle in my opinion that he happened to see this on TV,” McGuinness told ABC News. “I can’t express how grateful I am.”
Voigt is cautious yet optimistic that McGuiness will beat this cancer.
“With anything that’s found early and before symptoms, there’s a better chance of recovery,” he said.
Thanks to Voigt and the people who shared the video on Facebook, McGuinness can now get the proper treatment to prevent the thyroid cancer from spreading.
They still keep in contact and recently met in person, allowing McGuinness to say thank you face to face.
“You have no idea how much you’ve impacted my life,” she told him.
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