26-year-old Danielle McCulloch couldn’t wait for her new life with her husband to begin. The couple got married on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and also arranged to have their honeymoon there.
But when McCulloch stepped into a grocery store while there, she was suddenly approached by a stranger who said she was a doctor. The doctor had noticed from a little way off that McCulloch had a strange lump on her neck, and was adamant that McCulloch go get it checked out as soon as she returned home to the UK.
McCulloch was a little stunned, but after a moment’s hesitation, took this warning to heart. She had noticed the lump on her neck as well, but because it hadn’t caused her pain, she’d neglected going to see a doctor about it.
When the McCullochs returned home, Danielle did as the doctor advised and went to see her GP, who agreed to run a series of tests on the abnormal growth.
Even though the tests and biopsies came back clean, McCulloch’s doctor still wanted to remove the lump out of precaution.
It was only after the removal of her left thyroid that doctors came back to McCulloch with new, bad news: The lump was, actually, cancerous.
McCulloch was diagnosed with stage 3 thyroid cancer. If she had come in to get the lump removed any later, there was a chance doctors wouldn’t have been able to guarantee her survival.
But thanks to the stranger’s warning, McCulloch had come in just in time. Doctors were able to surgically remove a four-centimeter lump from her left thyroid and repeat the same procedure on her right. Afterward, McCulloch received radioactive iodine treatment to rid her body of any remaining traces of cancer.
Now, although McCulloch will have to live with the large scar on her neck and take medicine to help with her body’s thyroid function for the rest of her life, she is free of cancer. She can finally begin the rest of her life with her husband and their two young children.
