An Intimate Conversation
- Love Island stars Demi Jones and Shaughna Phillips sat down for an intimate chat to discuss Jones’ experience of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and to raise awareness about the disease. Phillips lost her father to pancreatic cancer in 2016.
- After receiving messages from Love Island viewers about a lump they spotted in Jones’ neck, she decided to visit the doctor to get it checked out. She didn’t think it was anything serious so she went to the appointment alone. She was later diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
- Thyroid cancer is cancer of the butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the neck. It's still unclear what causes the disease, but the most common sign of thyroid cancer is a lump at the base of the neck.
Yesterday, Jones and Phillips sat down for Cancer Research UK “Play Your Part” campaign to raise awareness about cancer and their personal experiences with the disease. According to Jones, after leaving Love Island she received numerous messages about a lump in her neck, and decided to go get it checked out. She assumed it was nothing to worry about, and went to the appointment alone. However, doctors did a biopsy of the lump and revealed to her that it was thyroid cancer.
Read More“I just wish I thanked my dad more,” Phillips says to Jones. “No amount of ‘I love you’s’ will ever be enough. It’s made me so much more compassionate. When I found out about you [Jones], it hurt me.”
After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, Jones went through a successful surgery in April to remove the tumor. However, Jones revealed she would need to go through radiation treatment in the next few weeks to remove any remaining cancer cells. Despite having a scar on her neck from surgery, Jones says the whole experience has inspired others to get lumps on their neck checked out in order to either rule out a diagnosis or catch it early.
“I can’t go a day without people messaging me saying they got their lumps checked because of me,” Jones says. “They went in for an operation because of my story.”
What is Thyroid Cancer?
Thyroid cancer is cancer of the butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the neck. It's still unclear what causes the disease, but the most common sign of thyroid cancer is a lump at the base of the neck. However, other symptoms of the disease can be mistaken for a common cold such as a hoarse voice, other changes in the voice that do not resolve themselves, difficulty swallowing or difficulty breathing.
People can get thyroid cancer at any age, but about two in three cases occur in people between the ages of 20 and 55; three out of four of these cases are in women. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is typically diagnosed in people over 60. When it comes to risk factors, family history can play a role.
Related: 7 Common Signs of Thyroid Cancer & How to Spot Them
When caught early, the disease is easy to treat. The most common treatment method is surgery, where the entire thyroid gland will be removed. This eliminates any remaining cancer cells that may be present after the tumor is removed, and increases the likelihood that you'll enter remission. It's not often that patients will need to go through additional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation after the procedure.
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