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Doctor watching property show spots major cancer sign in woman he’s never met and tracks her down
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A woman's life may have been saved by a doctor spotting a major sign of cancer when she appeared on a property show.
When Nicole McGuinness appeared on the HGTV show Beach Front Bargain Hunt, she was hoping to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a home on the beach, with the moment taking on even more significance as she was celebrating successful treatment for brain cancer.
While McGuinness, then 32, was looking at beachfront properties in South Carolina in 2018, Dr. Erich Voigt spotted something from his home on Long Island that would turn her life around.
He saw a small but noticeable lump on her throat, which he simply could not ignore - and decided to track her down using social media.
Dr. Voigt, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, recalled his first thoughts to Inside Edition: "Gosh, I feel obliged to let this person know. They may not know they have something and as an expert in the field, I was concerned for her."
Revealing how he felt when Dr Voigt reached out, McGuinness explained: "Somehow or another, by the grace of God, it got back to my family and we were shocked. We were shocked that a doctor witnessed this on television and reached out."
She quickly went to have the lump examined by a doctor and the results showed that she did indeed have papillary thyroid cancer.
McGuinness added on Good Morning America at the time: "It’s just a miracle, in my opinion, that he happened to see this on television. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much."
The young woman had previously battled a brain tumor in 2015, and had been looking for a property as a celebration for having completed her treatment.
Dr Voigt added: "With anything that’s found early and before symptoms, there’s a better chance of recovery."
In a 2025 update from The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, McGuinness reflected on her first brush with cancer, a decade earlier.
That morning, days before Christmas 2015, had begun as normal, until a then-29-year-old McGuinness called her mom to ask where the dog food was, before everything went blank.
Her mom rushed over to check on her and insisted she go to the hospital, where McGuinness realized something was very wrong when she struggled to remember the answers to simple questions such as where she worked.
She suffered another seizure while having a CT scan, which helped to discover a mass in her brain.
McGuinness underwent brain surgery on Christmas Eve and was released on Christmas Day, and when she later returned to the hospital for a follow-up appointment, she was told that she had a grade 4 glioblastoma.
Revealing the devastating moment, she explained: "They told me I had 10 to 16 months to live. Everyone was crying, and I just said, ‘Between God and Duke [the hospital], I’m going to survive. There’s a Chick-fil-A downstairs and I’m hungry - let’s go eat.’"
Following radiation, chemotherapy, and a clinical trial using immunotherapy, she was given an MRI scan every two months for the first four years after her diagnosis, and the tumor - which had been around the size of a golf ball at diagnosis - thankfully had never returned.
Following her later diagnosis of thyroid cancer, which was also treated at Duke, McGuinness said that she thanked three things - her faith, her support system, and Duke - for her survival and still being free of brain cancer a decade on, despite the initially poor prognosis.
She added: "I don’t know why these things are happening, but I’m so thankful I’ve been at Duke this entire time.
"I’ve always tried to stay positive. That’s not easy when someone tells you that you have 10 to 16 months to live, but I believe attitude plays a huge role.
"I’m not saying you can’t be sad - but trying to find the good, appreciating the small things, that’s what helps. A beautiful sunset, matching socks from the dryer ... the little things matter."