‘I cried thinking how to tell my kids’: Doctors missed mum’s cancer for FIVE years then told her she had 18 months to live
Belinda Gilfoyle was in pain for years with undiagnosed oral cancer that developed into a rare form of head and neck cancer
BELINDA Gilfoyle, 46, lives in Kent with her husband Carl, 47, daughter Nadia, 18, and son Oliver, 10. She says:
"The pain felt like a long needle stabbing me in the ear.
It was so excruciating, I was often reduced to tears.
In 2008 it appeared out of nowhere, and within six months it was happening daily.
The doctor assured me it was nerve pain and gave me painkillers, but they didn’t make any difference.
Over the following years I went back to my GP and dentist and even saw a maxillofacial consultant, who specialised in face pain.
But each time I was told it was nothing to worry about and I’d just have to live with it.
Life felt hopeless – I’d gone from being an outgoing person to a shadow of myself.
My husband Carl, a body guard for a security company, was a great support, but I knew it was hard for him.
In 2013, five years after the pain had started, I found a lump the size of a grape in my neck.
Scared of being fobbed off by my GP, I made an appointment at a private hospital so I could get it seen straight away.
It cost £500, and the following day I had a biopsy.
A week later I returned for the results.
The consultant told me the pain had been caused by oral cancer that developed into a rare form of head and neck cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma.
It was a slow-growing tumour, which was why it was missed by doctors for so long.
Then he gently told me that I had 18 months left to live.
I felt as if the air had been punched out of me.
The consultant explained chemotherapy probably wouldn’t help, and surgery would ‘mutilate’ me and potentially destroy my face.
I burst into tears, thinking of how I’d break the news to my children.
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I begged the consultant to let me try chemo and he reluctantly agreed.
I gave up my job in sales at a car showroom and started chemo in January 2014.
While my hair didn’t fall out, I was very sick and lost over a stone.
But the chemo had no effect on the tumour, so I was referred to specialists at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, where they were willing to operate.
I was warned I’d be left scarred and might never eat solid food again.
It was hard to hear, but I had to try it.
During a 15-hour operation, surgeons opened my face and drilled through my teeth and jaw to get to the cancer, which was deep beneath my tongue. They also replaced part of my tongue with muscle from my thigh.
They removed the tumour, but I was left with a scar running down my chin and neck and back up to my ear.
When I saw it, I burst into tears.
My children were shocked and scared at first, but quickly got used to it.
Once I came home, I still had to rely on a feeding tube in my stomach and couldn’t move my tongue.
But things got better, and two years on I’m now eating solids.
I’ve also learned how to talk again following a year of intensive speech therapy, and my scar is barely noticeable.
It was hard coming to terms with the fact doctors missed my cancer for so long, but I’m focusing on the future.
It’s especially important now as last December, I was told there are cancer cells in my lungs.
They’re growing slowly, and although I’ve been told there’s no treatment I can try at the moment, I’ll never give up hoping one day there will be a cure."
The leads research into head and neck cancer. Also visit .
BTW
- In the UK, 21 people are diagnosed with oral cancer every day. Almost half of those are aged 65 and over.*
- Michael Douglas was treated for it in 2010.
- Incidence rates in the UK have increased by 92% since the late 1970s.*
*According to Cancer Research UK