How TV Reporter, Antoinette Lattouf Was ‘Saved’ By Viewer Who Spotted A Lump And Wrote To The Show
A television journalist who admits she ‘scoffed’ at a message from a viewer urging her to get her neck checked has credited the stranger for ‘saving her career’. Antoinette Lattouf, a reporter for Network Ten in Australia, is often inundated with messages after a show, from viewers arguing against her opinions to her own mother pointing out that her eyeliner is too thick.
One Friday after coming off air, the show’s editor called Antoinette over to say they had received a ‘strange’ message about her on Facebook .
It read:
“Has Antoinette Lattouf had her thyroid checked? I am not being smart or trolling just concerned with what I saw on TV today.”
The sender, Wendy McCoy, said she wasn’t a medical professional but a lump on the left side of the reporter’s neck ‘reminded me of a friend’.
Taken aback, Antoinette shrugged off the message at first, before watching the clip back.
“I was left shocked,”
wrote Antoinette on 10Daily .
“It looked like I had an Adam’s apple. Something was definitely protruding from my neck.”
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Knowing her family’s history of thyroid cancer, she visited her GP where three blood tests, an ultrasound and a CT scan revealed she had a large cyst which needed surgery, as well as an autoimmune disease. The cyst was benign, but the lump just above her voice box would likely have began to interfere with her ability to breathe, speak and swallow of left untreated.
When Antoinette got in touch with Wendy, the viewer admitted she wasn’t going to say anything as she didn’t want to ‘seem to be interfering’ but ‘though bugger it, because it stood out like a dog’s hind leg’.
The journalist is now encouraging others to do the same if they notice a worrying problem with a loved one or a stranger by taking Wendy’s ‘bugger it’ approach and politely broaching the issue with sensitivity.
” So to Wendy, I say thank you for caring enough to reach out to me, a complete stranger, and urging me to see a doctor.
Your random act of kindness probably saved my career.”