Thyroid cancer found by chance in young woman during MRI for arm pain

June 2018, Katie Tombs, then 27, and her boyfriend Brad were packing up their Sydney flat for a round‑the‑world trip when a forgotten indoor skydiving voucher prompted her to schedule a physio appointment for an intermittent arm pain. The physio urged her to get an MRI to rule out a spine issue. Thanks to private health insurance, she saw a specialist quickly, and the results came by phone: the good news was there was nothing wrong with her spine; the bad news was they had found the edge of something else.

The MRI had been slightly misaligned, catching a sliver of her neck along with her back and revealing a small lump that would prove to be thyroid cancer. The lump wasn’t visible, and Tombs had no other symptoms or family history of the disease. It would take careful testing to confirm what lay beneath the coincidence. "I had no idea what it was and didn't know how important the thyroid was in the body – it impacts everything," she later recalled. Her employer reinstated her straight away, which meant she could retain private healthcare and stay in the UK for the six months of treatment she would need. On the day she learned the news, Tombs was still concluding the abrupt transition from planned travel to a new, health‑focused reality.

An ultrasound and follow‑up tests confirmed the diagnosis: papillary thyroid cancer, the most common form, which often responds well to treatment. The cancer had also spread to lymph nodes in her neck. The moment of diagnosis was stark but not entirely unfathomable for Tombs, who said the experience pushed her to plan quickly for the next steps while trying to preserve a sense of direction in her life.

To treat the disease, she underwent a full thyroidectomy — removal of the thyroid gland — along with a right neck dissection to clear the tumour and affected nodes. She also received radioactive iodine treatment, followed by months of monitoring and recovery. The process took about six months in total. By March 2019, Katie and Brad had put travel plans on hold long enough to finish treatment and then set off again for six months, exploring Asia, New Zealand and Fiji, before returning to the UK for follow‑up care.

Now living without a thyroid, Tombs takes daily medication to regulate her hormones. She said life does not end after thyroid cancer and healing does not conclude when treatment ends. "Life absolutely goes on after thyroid cancer and healing doesn't end the day treatment finishes. It's the aftermath that changes your life, drawing focus on health and wellness, physically, mentally and spiritually," she said. "Getting back to the planned travel became a big part of that process. It gave me a chance to finally slow down, sit with the weight of everything that had just happened over the past six months. I rediscovered joy and gratitude in nature and new places, which helped me reconnect with myself and with life again. For that, I am forever grateful."

Thyroid cancer is a relatively common, often curable cancer that can present without obvious symptoms. The thyroid is a small gland in the neck that produces hormones essential for regulating metabolism. The most common form, papillary thyroid cancer, typically grows in one lobe of the thyroid and accounts for about 70 to 80 percent of cases. Follicular thyroid cancer makes up roughly 15 percent of cases, with other, less common forms including medullary and anaplastic thyroid cancers. In Australia, an estimated 4,335 people were diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2024. The average age at diagnosis is 53; thyroid cancer is the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the country, and about one in 79 people will be diagnosed by age 85. Women are significantly more affected than men, according to Cancer Council.

For Tombs, the unexpected discovery came through an error of chance that proved life‑changing rather than lethal. The case underscores how a silent disease can surface in the most unlikely ways and how timely access to testing and comprehensive treatment can lead to long‑term survival and a return to meaningful life plans.

The broader health context is that thyroid cancer, while not among the most common cancers, has a meaningful presence in health statistics and public awareness campaigns. Medical groups emphasize that thyroid cancer is often detected incidentally on imaging for unrelated reasons, and that prognosis improves with early detection and appropriate treatment. As Tombs’s experience shows, early intervention can be pivotal, even when initial symptoms are absent and when the diagnosis arrives at a moment already burdened with personal upheaval. The medical community continues to study the disease to refine screening, treatment options and follow‑up care, particularly for younger patients who face long‑term hormone replacement therapy after thyroid removal.