This Actress Posted A Photo Of Her Missed Thyroid Cancer Symptom So Others Know What To Look For

You’ve all seen the informational diagrams and visual aids that help you to check for and identify breast cancer, but how do you know if you have thyroid cancer? British actress Lorna Nickson Brown knows firsthand that there’s an easy way to tell.

The actress was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. She and her family began to suspect something wasn’t quite right when a lump appeared on the front of her throat.

“My mum noticed a lump on the front left side of my neck. She thought I lost a bit of weight, but three months later I visited the GP who confirmed that it was a thyroid nodule,” she told Indy100.

Brown hadn’t noticed any other symptoms before this, either. Upon finding out the lump was cancerous, she was shocked.

“I felt numb. I didn’t believe it because I felt so well. At the time I was optioned for a Golden Globe-nominated TV series,” she told Indy100. “This isn’t what I thought cancer looked like. The minute you tell people, it’s the cancer face. I didn’t feel ill.”

Because she was so caught off guard by this diagnosis, she’s taken to the internet to spread word about what to look for to identify thyroid cancer. Because, as with mosts cancers, awareness and early detection are definitely key.

In side-by-side photos she posted to Twitter, she shows herself before and after surgery, and you can clearly see where the nodule was on her neck. In the post, she writes, “Thyroid cancer is a rare cancer and usually first presents itself with a hard lump at the front of your neck. It is not widely known about. I didn’t even know what a thyroid was when I was told about thyroid cancer.”

This was definitely a learning experience for the actress, and now she’s speaking out so that she can hopefully help others catch the disease early. Brown is doing just fine post-surgery, and has been clear of cancer for over a year.

In fact, she’ll be running in a marathon to raise money for Get A-Head. The charity supports patients with head- and neck-related diseases. Check out more about Get A-Head and learn about some of the other symptoms of thyroid cancer here.