When civil servant Grace Brand first felt a sore patch on the side of her tongue, she thought nothing of it.
At 30, the High Wycombe resident assumed it was just a stubborn mouth ulcer brought on by stress after a house move and long hours at work.
But six weeks later the pain was still there – and getting worse.
A trip to the pharmacist for Bonjela set off a chain of referrals and tests that ended in devastating news: she had stage two tongue cancer.
Within weeks Grace was on an operating table undergoing a 12-hour procedure called a hemiglossectomy, in which surgeons removed half her tongue and rebuilt it using skin from her left forearm.
Now recovering, she faces radiotherapy and months of speech therapy to relearn how to talk, swallow and eat – but says she feels ‘lucky’ doctors caught it when they did.
Grace said: ‘I realised after six weeks that I had a painful ulcer on my tongue. I didn’t do anything about it at first.
‘I want to get people to look at their tongues. I’m very lucky it was painful – [in many cases] unless you see it, you wouldn’t know it was there.’
When civil servant Grace Brand first felt a sore patch on the side of her tongue, she thought nothing of it
A trip to the pharmacist for Bonjela set off a chain of referrals and tests that ended in devastating news: she had stage two tongue cancer
Her story underlines a growing problem.
Rates of mouth cancers – including those of the tongue – have soared by more than a third in the UK over the past decade, with around 10,800 people now diagnosed every year.
More than half of cases occur on the tongue or tonsils.
While survival is good if caught early – more than eight in ten patients live at least five years – outcomes fall sharply once the disease begins to spread.
Typical warning signs include an ulcer or sore that doesn’t heal within three weeks, red or white patches on the tongue, persistent pain, earache or jaw stiffness.
Smoking and heavy drinking remain the biggest risk factors, and the combination multiplies the danger.
But doctors stress that the disease is increasingly seen in younger people with no obvious risks – making vigilance especially important.
Grace first noticed the problem in April this year.
Now recovering, Grace faces radiotherapy and months of speech therapy to relearn how to talk, swallow and eat – but says she feels ‘lucky’ doctors caught it when they did
Your browser does not support iframes.
The sore spot was tucked away on the right side of her tongue, near her back teeth, and she never thought to check it in a mirror.
‘I was in a lot of pain and it was affecting my speech,’ she recalled. ‘I thought I was run down. I had a stressful job, I’d just moved. I thought I was generally stressed.’
A pharmacist raised the alarm, warning that ulcers usually heal within three weeks.
Grace’s GP then referred her urgently, and within days she was sitting in front of a specialist who ordered a biopsy.
By July 29 she had her diagnosis – stage two tongue cancer – confirmed by a series of scans.
Grace said: ‘I connected with a guy on TikTok and it confirmed to me that I had cancer.
‘His pictures looked like my tongue. So by the time I got the results, I was prepared.’
Her treatment has been life-changing. Alongside losing half her tongue, surgeons removed the lymph nodes on the right side of her neck as a precaution.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
She is now facing six weeks of radiotherapy.
Grace added: ‘I’ll have to learn to use my tongue again. I’ll need speech therapy for months. It feels very alien to be living with half a real tongue.
‘They reconstruct it for quality of life but it will look very different for life.’
She is speaking out to raise awareness, as rates of mouth cancer are rising, particularly among younger people.
‘If it had been caught later I might have lost all of my tongue,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to scaremonger but to share the reality. I feel like a very different person now.’