Brand specialist Kodi Brown, 27, from Brisbane, was living the dream in America, working at Disneyworld, when she noticed a change in her health.
Then aged 21, Kodi confessed she didn’t have the “healthiest lifestyle” but never imagined she would be diagnosed with thyroid cancer at such a young age.
“I was pretty much always exhausted but I put it down to the long hours and ignored it,” Kodi tells 7Life.
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It wasn’t until the following year when Kodi — now a Daffodil ambassador for The Cancer Council — moved back to Australia that she decided to do something about how bad she was feeling.
“My exhaustion didn’t get any better, I was always cold, my weight kept fluctuating, and I had a consistent sore throat as well as throat infections,” Kodi explains.
“I felt what started out as a pea-sized lump in my throat keep growing over a seven-month period.”
By the time the lump was the size of a golf ball, Kodi’s mum encouraged her to get it checked by a doctor.
“My mum had had breast cancer, so I was always thorough with getting my breasts checked but I never considered my neck region,” Kodi says.
She went in for testing, including scans and blood tests, which came back inconclusive.
Due to the size of the lump, the doctors then took a biopsy.
That’s when the diagnosis came back as cancerous.
“I was working at a warehouse in the morning and booked a doctor appointment for my lunch break to find out the results,” Kodi says.
“I was then going to my internship in the afternoon.”
Kodi said her initial reaction to the diagnosis was shock.
“I didn’t really react or cry, I just stared at the doctor and said, ‘OK thanks for sharing’,” she says.
Kodi then called her mother before heading straight to work at her afternoon internship.
“I couldn’t quite process it in the moment, my mum was crying on the phone when I told her,” she says.
“But then I had to drive to my internship and I started sobbing in my car. It was a very strange experience.”
In October, a month after her thyroid cancer diagnosis, Kodi had surgery to remove the lump in her throat.
“My surgeon was my lifesaver,” she says.
“We were hoping we could keep part of the thyroid so I wouldn’t be dependent on medication but it had spread so they had to remove my whole thyroid.”
After recovering from the surgery, Kodi began radioactive iodine treatment — which is specifically for treating thyroid cancer — the following February.
The treatment targets the throat region and involves a patient being alone in a hospital room for four days, “which is such an isolating experience,” Kodi says.
“There are cameras in the room to monitor because they can’t come in,” she says.
“For food drop offs, they knock at door and ensure you are standing in the corner. I had to wash my hair two times a day and dispose of everything I used.
“Obviously there is physical trauma with cancer but with that also comes a lot of mental traumas, too. You are left with the mental scars even when you do hit remission.”
While Kodi says she has “always been a very positive person and tried to continue to be” throughout her cancer journey, “it’s still a very dark, scary and lonely experience”.
“I had the support of my family and my mum who had been through a similar experience but there were also beautiful organisations like Cancer Council,” she says.
“When the darkness and the sadness consumed my life, I hit a point where I needed to talk to someone I didn’t know.”
Kodi is grateful for the support network of family and friends but says “it’s such a weird experience to share with people in your life”.
“Being able to reach out to someone you don’t know is such a freeing experience,” she says.
“When I first spoke to someone from Cancer Council, I felt as though I could let them know everything on my mind.
“I would compare myself to other people experiencing cancer and live in fear that a reoccurrence is going to happen and would be afraid to make future plans.
“The Cancer Council are there to guide you and make sure you are aware your feelings are valid.”
Kodi has now hit five years in remission but says “a cancer diagnosis is a life-long battle”.
“I was in my final year of university when I was diagnosed but I was adamant I didn’t want to defer. However, I had to stop working and I was lucky enough to have my parents support me,” she says.
Kodi had to have speech therapy post-treatment. She also had problems moving her neck and a consistent cough.
“A cancer diagnosis at times is sadly a game of luck, I was one of the lucky ones and I want to make sure that I am really experiencing life,” Kodi says.
Kodi became a Daffodil ambassado, saying: “Daffodil Day has always stood out to me. It brings hope and reminds you that there is brightness even in the darkest of times.”
She shared her story last year with her current workplace, Southern Cross Austereo, which is now a partner with Cancer Council.
Kodi’s advice for other people battling cancer is that while it is important to try to stay positive, “it’s also OK not to be OK”.
“In those moments don’t be afraid to reach out,” she says.
“There is always someone to guide you, you are not alone and try to see the good moments in the tough times and focus on small moments of joy.”
Daffodil Day is August 24, 2024. You can find out more here.
