(KIRO/CNN) - A potato chip fan has her favorite snack to thank for alerting her to what turned out to be cancer.
Almost every day for 20 years, Kristine Moore of Washington state has packed Ruffles potato chips in her lunch.
In February, a sharp ridge of a chip poked her in the throat. When her husband looked at her throat, he told her her tonsils looked red and swollen and had “some stuff” on them.
Moore got a strep test at a walk-in clinic. The test came back negative, but a doctor didn’t like what she saw and ordered a biopsy.
The diagnosis came back as cancer - specifically squamous cell carcinoma, on her left tonsil.
According to Moore’s doctors, if it weren’t for the chip, she may not have felt the tumor until the cancer was farther along.
“The potato chip was a blessing in disguise,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t have found out for another year.”
Moore said her husband called Frito-Lay, the company the makes Ruffles, to tell her story.
“They sent two T-shirts and a lunch bag and a thank-you letter, and a couple of coupon for free chips,” Moore said. She said she’d welcome a lifetime supply, and her husband may be making another call to see if that’s possible.
Moore believes years of smoking may have caused the cancer. She has since quit smoking, cold turkey.
As for the Ruffles, that’s another story. She said she’ll be eating the chips, “Until I can’t eat them anymore.”
Courtesy KIRO via CNN Newscoure
