'I thought my annoying ulcer was a bitten tongue - it turned out to be cancer'

A mum claims her nagging hubby saved her life - after what she'd dismissed as a 'bitten tongue' turned out to be cancer. Lynn Hunt woke up one morning with a sore tongue and, curious to see what was causing it, whipped her phone out and spotted two small white patches on the right-hand side.

Assuming she'd bitten it, the 56-year-old went about her day but as the weeks went on it turned into a painful ulcer that wouldn't shift. After spending a holiday forced to take painkillers before every meal, Lynn's 53-year-old business director husband Stuart Hunt urged her to go to the GP and get it checked out.

A blood test, hospital referral and biopsy confirmed that the MOT service garage business owner had tongue cancer. Within days of the shock diagnosis, the mum-of-two went under the knife for a gruelling 12-hour op where a quarter of her tongue was removed and rebuilt using tissue and veins from her arm.

After undergoing radiotherapy and laser surgery on her tongue, the mum-of-two has two-monthly checks to confirm the cancer is gone. Now Lynn is urging anyone with a mouth ulcer lasting more than three weeks to get it checked and rule out anything sinister.

Lynn, from Didcot, South Oxfordshire, told how she first spotted the white spots in March last year. She said: "My two favourite things are eating and talking, so of all the places [to get cancer] - it was very scary. Initially I just thought I had bitten my tongue, that's why I took a picture on my phone.

"There were two small white patches. It went into an ulcer while I was visiting my Dad in Cyprus. It was annoying and I took painkillers while I was eating food.

"When I got back, just a few days before we were going to Egypt, I said to Stu 'this ulcer's just not gone away'. He said 'Lynn ring up the doctors in the morning and get it checked out'. I did it just to get him off my back so I could say 'I've rung the doctor' and take it off my list of things to do.

"I went to the doctors, had the blood test done and thought 'great it's done'. When we were coming back off holiday I turned my phone back on at the carousel waiting for our luggage and saw an email called a 'two-week cancer referral letter'.

"I turned to show Stu with my mouth open. I was gobsmacked."

That was in April 2023 and by the following month the gran-of-two was referred to Churchill Hospital in Oxford where the specialist said it was likely to be cancerous just by looking at it. Lynn said: "He sat me on a dentist chair, got me to open my mouth, felt around, had a look at it and I mentioned I had an earache on and off.

"He said he'd send it off for a biopsy but when my husband asked if he could tell if it's possibly cancer just by looking at it he replied 'if I was a betting man, I would say it's cancer'." Less than two weeks later Lynn's biopsy results came back confirming it was T3 cancer and, thanks to a cancellation, she was booked in for surgery at Church Hospital just six days later on May 24, 2023.

Worried she may never speak again, Lynn filmed a poignant video giving 'my voice one last time' telling her daughters Stacey Walker, 38, and Josie Beer, 27, she loved them.

Lynn said: "I just wanted it [the cancer] cut out as soon as possible. It's gruelling. It was a 12-hour op with 26 hours sedated because they needed swelling to go down, luckily I didn't need a tracheostomy.

"They take a skin graft from your arm and a vein to plumb it into your mouth - they have to rob Peter to pay Paul. It was an ordeal, it was the most horrendous thing I could even imagine.

"You wouldn't think a little ulcer on your tongue would involve so much work. They do that so you can talk and eat again. Years ago they just used to cut your tongue out. I recorded a message to my daughters saying I loved them in case my voice altered, it was hard.

"The surgeons said that they couldn't guarantee what would happen when they did the op and that they might have to remove all my tongue. In the end they took a quarter of my tongue but not my tip - more at the side and at the back."

Lynn went home a week after her operation and then underwent a six-week course of radiotherapy in July to blast any remaining cancer cells. In May 2024 doctors did another biopsy near the original site and discovered pre-cancerous cells so Lynn had laser tongue surgery and now has regular check-ups.

Lynn said: "I have two-monthly check-ups because of the pre-cancerous cells they found. I have another appointment just before Christmas, so they're keeping a close eye on it. I'm all-clear at the moment.

"My speech is pretty much how I was before. It's because I was lucky it wasn't huge they had to get clear margins, they had to take lymph nodes out of my neck because they test them and luckily that came back all clear. If I'd have been on my own I think I would have just ignored it more.

"I'm lucky because I did catch it quite early - because Stu told me to get it checked out. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have gone so soon. If I'd have been a few weeks longer it would have gone to other places. He's truly amazing, he's helped me through all of this, so have my daughters."

Now Lynn is urging anyone with an ulcer that lasts longer than three weeks to get it checked out. Lynn said: "It's probably nothing and great if it is, you can get on with your life, but if it is something the earlier you catch is key.

"All you've got to do is ring your doctor or see your dentist, make that appointment and they will do a simple blood test and you get it checked out. If it's something, it will save your life by going."

What is tongue cancer

Latest figures, from 2024, show there were 10,825 people diagnosed with mouth cancer over the previous 12 months in England. Elsewhere data for the rest of the UK is less up to date but show in Wales 512 people were diagnosed with the cancer in 2019 and 263 in Northern Ireland in the same year. In Scotland the figures are from 2020 when there were 881 people diagnosed.

The figures, from the Mouth Cancer Foundation show 3,637 people died from some form of mouth cancer. Numbers of cases are rising every year - increasing by 49% over the past 10 years. However as a result of late detection the 5 year survival rate has barely improved for decades.

Symptoms of mouth cancer

According to the NHS tongue cancer is a type of head and neck cancer. Symptoms of mouth cancer can affect any part of your mouth including the gums, tongue, inside the cheeks, or lips. Symptoms can include:

• a mouth ulcer in your mouth that lasts more than 3 weeks
• a red or white patch inside your mouth
• a lump inside your mouth or on your lip
• pain inside your mouth
• difficulty swallowing
• difficulty speaking or a hoarse (croaky) voice
• a lump in your neck or throat
• losing weight without trying

See a GP if:

• you have an mouth ulcer that has lasted more than 3 weeks
• you have a lump in your mouth, on your lip, on your neck or in your throat
• you have a red or white patch in your mouth
• you have pain in your mouth that's not going away
• you're having difficulty swallowing or speaking
• you have a hoarse (croaky) voice that does not go away

A dentist can also help with ulcers, lumps, patches or pain in your mouth.