Woman credits bull for saving her life after injuries at rodeo lead to cancer diagnosis

REDDING, Calif. (KRCR) - A runaway rodeo bull injured a woman but ultimately saved her life.

Paige King said she was injured after a bull got loose while attending the Redding Rodeo in the summer.

Officials said the bull injured six people, including 25-year-old King, as the incident sent her to the hospital.

“I didn’t know what was going on exactly, it kind of took me a second, and then my boyfriend picked me up, and I was like, ‘Oh, there’s a bull here,’” King said.

The ordeal frightened King’s family, including her father.

“The bull jumped the fence, but thankfully the bull exited out of the gate,” King’s father, Erick Mattson, said.

And in a miraculous turn of events, the family said King’s treatments revealed an underlying health crisis.

“We brought her to the emergency room, and they noticed a lump on her neck through a CT scan. The doctor said to get that checked out,” Mattson said.

The family discovered that King was in the early stages of thyroid cancer.

“I was stunned. Finding out that one of your kids might have cancer. It kind of takes you back. It gives you chills,” Mattson said.

After cancer came to light, Bob Tallman, a Hall of Fame American rodeo announcer, told the family to send King to a treatment facility in Texas, where she could get specialized care.

“We called Bob [Tallman], and he told us to call a doctor in Houston,” Mattson said. “We explained the situation and contacted the MD Anderson Cancer Center.”

After the ordeal, King, a house cleaner, said she was on her way to a client’s home when she happened to spot the bull from the rodeo.

“I was driving and looked to my left, and all of a sudden, I saw a bull that looked identical to the one at the rodeo,” King said.

It turns out the animal was the bull from the Redding Rodeo.

“It was a full-circle moment in my life. I’ll cherish it forever,” King said.

Copyright 2022 KRCR via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.