Whilst on maternity leave following the birth of my second child, I discovered a large lump on my neck. I was shortly thereafter diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had a total thyroidectomy surgery to remove a solid cancerous tumor that had quickly grown within my thyroid. The pathology report concluded that I had ‘classic’ papillary thyroid carcinoma. I now take replacement thyroid hormone daily and have regular hormone checks and ultrasounds. This experience made me realize how far removed I was as a basic scientist from the clinical realities of cancer diagnostic tools and treatment. I have been deeply inspired to apply my basic research to patient samples and have an ambition to help develop new prognostic imaging-based tools based on cell shape measurements.
A solid mass rapidly grew in my neck postpartum- you can see in this photo how swollen my neck appears.
Photo taken just after my surgery with my Frankenstein scar!
A picture of my completely removed thyroid! You can see that the right side is enlarged in comparison to the left- actually both lobes are larger that they should be and showed evidence of cancer.