From Fear to Power:My Thyroid Cancer Story and the Birth of a Community
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
By Isabel Márquez
Co-founder of Thyroid Collective
The moment everything changed for me wasn’t just when I was told I had thyroid cancer. It was the quiet after. The overwhelm. The disconnect. I felt like I had entered a version of life where no one quite knew how to meet me where I was, not even myself.
I was young and suddenly in a loop of appointments, scans, surgery, radioactive iodine treatment, and long silences. My body was doing one thing and my mind another. I felt fragile, but everyone around me thought I was being strong. I didn’t want strength. I wanted clarity. I wanted someone to say, "Me too."
As I started to recover physically, I realized something bigger. There was no real support for people like me. Yes, there was medical information out there, but it was often terrifying or too clinical. There was nothing that helped me understand what was happening to me as a whole person. Especially in Spanish. Especially as a Latina. Especially as someone who needed to feel like I still had agency over my life and body.
That realization turned into purpose. I co-founded Thyroid Collective to create what I needed but couldn’t find: a digital community in Spanish, designed for people living with thyroid conditions to feel informed, guided, and seen.
Inside the community, we talk about the things that often go unsaid when you receive a diagnosis. How to make sense of lab results. How to talk to your doctor. What optimal treatment really looks like when you want more than “normal” labs. What foods support healing. What to ask in your first endocrinologist appointment. How to know if your supplements are working. We bring in experts in nutrition, functional medicine, gynecology, mental health, and more to lead real conversations. We ask the questions we wish someone had asked for us.
And yes, we also talk about the small things that matter more than people realize. Like which personal care products are non-toxic and safe for hormone-sensitive bodies. What exercise supports your energy instead of draining it. How to approach routines when your body feels unpredictable. How to feel like yourself again after surgery, treatment, or burnout.
For me, being unstoppable has changed. I used to think it meant pushing through everything and being productive no matter what. But in one of our planning sessions for an upcoming productivity talk, an expert said something that stayed with me. She said, “In life, you can do everything. But you can’t do everything at once. Find what season you’re in—healing, building, creating—and make that your priority. Only then will you understand what productivity really is.”
That line shifted something in me. Being unstoppable isn’t about being in motion. It’s about being aligned. It’s choosing what matters right now and giving yourself fully to it. It’s knowing when to pause and when to move. When to lead and when to listen. And it’s using what you’ve lived through to help someone else feel less alone in what they’re living now.
If I could speak to the version of myself who almost gave up, I’d tell her this:
You are not too much
You are not too late
You are not broken
You are becoming
The pain will pass but the clarity it gives you will stay. And one day, this thing that nearly crushed you will become the exact thing that connects you to hundreds of others. That’s what Thyroid Collective has become. And it’s just the beginning.
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