NC TV anchor who lost baby says viewer noticed lump that turned out to be cancer
WSOC-TV Channel 9 anchor Allison Latos went from reporting the news to being in the news last month, after posting a video where she tearfully expressed thanks for the support she received since losing her daughter Hannah on the day she was born in May.
On Monday night, the Charlotte journalist shared a new video about a new personal struggle: Latos, 35, revealed that she was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
She also said an observant viewer was responsible for making the initial discovery.
“A few months ago when I was pregnant with Hannah, a viewer reached out to me concerned about something she noticed on my neck,” Latos said in the video message Monday night. “I mentioned it to my doctor and had a few checks — everything seemed to be fine. But after we lost Hannah, I decided that I wanted to go to the doctor again.”
The diagnosis, she said, came just a few weeks ago.
She said she is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday morning, adding that her surgeon “is really optimistic and positive.” Though she’ll have a visible scar when she returns, Latos said she expects to miss just a few days of work.
Latos has only been back on the air for two weeks, following a three-month absence from WSOC in the wake of personal tragedy.
In the spring, while she was pregnant with her second daughter, a fetal MRI revealed that the baby had a very rare condition called a dural arteriovenous fistula, which created an abnormal passageway between a vein and an artery in the baby’s brain. As a result, the baby had severe irreversible brain damage.
Two weeks later, on May 13, shortly after Hannah was born, she died in her mother’s arms. Latos and her husband Josh shared their heartbreaking journey with the Observer last month.
“We do have two children,” she said at the time, “and I want to be as proud of her as I am of (her 2-year-old daughter) Hope. Because her life has meaning and her life is valuable. ... Even if we only had her for 90 minutes, those were the most precious minutes. So even though we may be emotional and we might cry, we want to share her story.”
‘Her phone call saved my life’
This is not the first time an eagle-eyed viewer has correctly identified an undiagnosed thyroid cancer for a TV news personality.
A viewer originally alerted “Inside Edition” host Deborah Norville of a lump on her neck that turned out to be a cancerous thyroid nodule. In April 2019, she had surgery to remove it and made a full recovery.
And just two weeks ago, Tampa, Fla.-based TV news reporter Victoria Price underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, her thyroid and some lymph nodes. She said a concerned viewer got a message to her after noticing it during a broadcast. She told NBC’s “Today” show last week that she is “90% back to normal.”
Thyroid cancer is generally considered to be one of the least deadly and most survivable cancers — so long as it is detected early, before spreading to the lymph nodes.
“I don’t believe it was a coincidence that viewer contacted me,” Latos said in her video message on Monday. “And I’m grateful. I truly believe that had she had not reached out I wouldn’t know about this, and there’s a very real possibility that her phone call saved my life.
“So I am choosing to be focused on gratitude and to be hopeful and faithful through this. ... We are going to be on the other side of this mountain, and I have too many things in my life to be thankful for to let this overwhelm me.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 6:37 AM with the headline "NC TV anchor who lost baby says viewer noticed lump that turned out to be cancer."
