A viewer's comment may have saved her life.
"Inside Edition" anchor Deborah Norville revealed in a video that she's undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous lump on her neck that was first noticed by a fan.
"You know we live in a world of see something, say something. And I'm really glad we do," Norville said in the video posted Monday to the official "Inside Edition" YouTube channel. "When you work on television, viewers comment on everything: your hair, your makeup, the dress you're wearing. And a long time ago, an 'Inside Edition' viewer reached out to say she'd seen something on my neck. It was a lump."
Norville, who has served as the newsmagazine's anchor since 1995, went on to recount that though she'd never seen the lump before, she took the viewer's concern to heart. She went to get it checked. "The doctor said it was nothing, a thyroid nodule. And for years it was nothing. Until recently, it was something," she said.
"The doctor says it's a very localized form of cancer," she explained, announcing, "Which tomorrow I'll have surgery to have removed."
Norville assured viewers she won't undergo chemotherapy or have to endure radiation, at least from what she's been told.
"But I will have surgery and I'll be away for a bit, so Diane (McInerney) will be holding down the fort."
She asked that viewers who "believe in prayer, please say one for me and for my surgeon," before encouraging them to continue watching the show until her return.
About 50,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the United States each year, and the survival rate is much higher than other cancers because it is generally slower-growing and usually treatable.
