Rich’s Story: Thyroid Cancer, Recurrence and the Urgency to Live Fully

The 30 Stories Podcast · Jul 14, 2026 · 32m

Rich’s story begins with a moment that seemed ordinary at first: after a Broadway show in New York City, his wife noticed a lump in his neck. What followed was a young adult cancer diagnosis, multiple medical opinions and the shock of hearing that he had papillary thyroid cancer while he and his wife were just beginning to imagine their future family life.

Throughout the conversation, Rich reflects on the complexity of treatment decisions, including surgery, recurrence and radioactive iodine. One of the strongest threads in his story is the challenge of sorting through conflicting medical…