A New York woman who was mugged last year is now grateful to be living without the cancer she may not have even known about had she not been robbed.

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The New York Post reported that 30-year-old Jennifer Chow was shocked by a mugger in the vestibule of her Harlem apartment building last October. She passed out and woke up without her purse. After responding police and medics recommended she go to an area hospital, Chow went in for a checkup and found she had thyroid cancer.

"If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have discovered the cancer so early, if at all," said Chow.

In December, doctors removed the cancerous tissue. The Post reported that Chow was declared cancer-free two weeks ago.

Although Chow said the mugging was a traumatizing event, she also said she was grateful for the outcome.

The cancer "probably would have been bad if I had not been mugged," she said. "It would have gotten to me much later and in a larger state."