“All through your life you will get ulcers on and off and that is the problem because you just dismiss them. I did not associate ulcers with cancer.”
12:31, 23 Feb 2026
Margot in Hospital(Image: Brian Prescott / SWNS)
A Scots woman has spoke out after her mouth ulcers that would not heal for weeks and kept coming back turned out to be tongue cancer. Margot Blair, 62, was a non-smoker, who didn’t drink much and was active – going to the gym five times a week.
She started to experience white lesions on her tongue in 2022 but a biopsy indicated nothing too concerning. Two years later mouth ulcers began appearing on and off but she didn’t think much of it as she had a sharp back tooth that she thought was causing them.
However, her tongue became swollen and the pain was so severe in May last year that it began radiating from her jaw through her cheeks and up her head. To find an answer to her pain Margot turned to a private consultant for a diagnosis as the ulcers would not go away for weeks.
Margot in hospital for radiotherapy.(Image: Brian Prescott / SWNS)
Margot from Dumfries was eventually diagnosed with tongue cancer and she is now raising awareness of the symptoms if people feel something is not right.
She said: “All through your life you will get ulcers on and off and that is the problem because you just dismiss them. I did not associate ulcers with cancer.
“I had a sharp back tooth that I thought was the reason for keeping getting ulcers as was always only on the left side never the other. It was once my tongue felt too big for my mouth and very painful that I knew this was not right.
“I had ulcers off and on for a few years so didn’t actually think that much at the time, just thought I got more than my fair share. Like most people I had never heard of tongue or oral cancer as it is just never talked about, so I didn’t think ‘oh this isn’t right’
Margot underwent radiotherapy(Image: Brian Prescott / SWNS)
“Also the fact they were lasting longer than two weeks I wasn’t aware that this could be an issue. You think ‘oh it’s just an ulcer’ it was only when my tongue became persistently sore that I wanted to see my dentist.”
After trips to her dentist, she booked an appointment with a private oral maxillofacial consultant. She said: “This time I have got an extremely sore tongue all the time – it is swollen, it is lumpy and bumpy.
“The dentist sat me down without a biopsy and said I had squamous cell carcinoma – he told me I had tongue cancer. I was in shock because you still don’t want it to be cancer diagnosis and in your mouth is just not a pleasant place to have it at all.”
Margot began follow-up testing including MRI scans, CT scans and biopsies at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. After having the initial cancer and lymph nodes removed at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, the pathology report showed the cancer had spread.
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This meant a secondary surgery was required on Margot’s tongue as well as the removal of cancerous lymph nodes in her neck. The treatments have left her with problems with her taste, a five inch scar on her neck and speech difficulties.
She said: “Some people think that I might be deaf because of the way that I speak. I cannot eat anything sweet if I was to eat chocolate – it tastes vile.
“If I eat ice cream it tastes like eating a slab of butter. Everything is salty.”
Margot did a six weeks of intensive, targeted radiotherapy at the Beatson in Glasgow. She said she would not wish radiotherapy treatment to her “worst enemy” as it was a difficult process.
After lymph nodes were taken out(Image: Brian Prescott / SWNS)
She added: “I had to have a head mask made for radiotherapy which gets clumped down right over your face and bolted to the table. If you are claustrophobic it is bad. It just presses so hard on your face.”
She has also lost 10 kg due to the pain she experienced whilst eating and difficulties swallowing.
Margot continued: “I am now four weeks post radiotherapy and I would say my mouth is now 70 per cent there. The taste side is 50 per cent. But I don’t know when I am going to get the sweet taste back.”
Two of the main risk factors for developing mouth and oropharyngeal cancer are consuming alcohol and smoking, according to Cancer Research UK. Margot is currently a non-smoker who goes to the gym fives times a week, and drinks very little alcohol.
She quit smoking 25 years ago. She hopes her lifestyle choices will help her to fight the disease.
She said: “I lost all the muscle that I worked so hard and trained for three years at the gym. I had a good toned body for 62. But I am slowly back on the gym and retraining.”
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