![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_KNM_ORAL_SEX_GAVE_ME_CANCER_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJeff Bradford, 62, thought dust from gym renovations caused his persistent sore throat in 2016 but doctors discovered it was stage-three throat cancer likely linked to sex he’d had years before<\/p>\n
Daniel Windham Assistant Editor, Trendswatch<\/p>\n
11:31, 09 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jeff Bradford was diagnosed with throat cancer several years ago(Image: Kennedy News and Media)<\/p>\n
A father who initially put a persistent sore throat down to dust from refurbishing his gym was stunned to discover it was actually throat cancer<\/a> \u2013 linked by the HPV16 virus contracted through oral sex.<\/p>\n Jeff Bradford, 62, first experienced a tickly throat after working on the rafters of his gym in March 2016. He explained: “We were in the loft putting some equipment up onto the rafters and there was a lot of dust and insulation. I had a mask but a couple of days after I had a bit of a sore throat<\/a> and I thought it was just the dust but I couldn’t shake it.” He initially attempted gargling soluble aspirin, believing it was an ordinary sore throat.<\/p>\n After a fortnight without improvement, Jeff consulted his GP, who diagnosed “classic tonsillitis” and prescribed antibiotics. When the symptoms continued, he returned to see a different doctor, who provided a stronger dose and took a throat swab, ultimately referring him to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.<\/p>\n “They must have seen the photos and thought ‘there’s something dodgy going on there’. I couldn’t see anything but I could feel something touching the back of my tongue, it was making me gag. It was like something was tickling the back of my tongue.”<\/p>\n Jeff initially blamed his sore throat on dust(Image: Kennedy News and Media)<\/p>\n At the hospital, a specialist examined Jeff and scheduled him for a biopsy. While on the operating table, the surgeon informed him the thumb-sized mass at the back of his throat had doubled in size since the previous scan and recommended immediate removal. “The surgeon came up that evening [after the surgery] and he said ‘looking at it, I think you’ve got stage three cancer’ I was just shocked,” Jeff said.<\/p>\n After the four-hour operation, tests confirmed stage-three throat cancer. Doctors told Jeff the cancer had been triggered by the HPV16 strain, which can be passed on through sexual activity, most commonly oral sex.<\/p>\n “A week later I went back and that’s when they mentioned HPV, I didn’t know what that was. HPV is caught through sexual transmission, it’s normally from oral sex. I was totally shocked it was from that,” Jeff said, adding that doctors believed he had contracted the virus decades before, prior to meeting his wife Heidi Bradford.<\/p>\n Jeff with wife Heidi<\/p>\n Jeff endured chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiotherapy, leaving him bed-bound for three months. He continued: “Radiotherapy caused really bad burns. It was like someone took a blowtorch to my neck, it was horrible. I went home and went to bed for three months”.<\/p>\n Now a decade clear of cancer, Jeff is urging others not to brush aside persistent symptoms, saying: “If someone has a persistent sore throat my advice is to get it checked out, it could be easily missed if you don’t push it. Everybody does it, don’t they?<\/p>\n “It’s a normal, sexual activity with somebody you love… I would never say to anyone ‘give up oral sex’… but it might put people off that. I think if it’s not talked about quite candidly it’ll get brushed under the carpet and if people are embarrassed to talk about it they may avoid treatment.”<\/p>\n Jeff’s neck after undergoing radiotherapy(Image: Kennedy News and Media)<\/p>\n Jeff, a former Royal Air Force<\/a> corporal and father-of-two from Forres, Moray, Scotland<\/a>, put his diagnosis down to simply “bad luck”.<\/p>\n He continued: “I’ve had a few partners before I met my wife, but you just go about life like everyone else. You don’t expect when you’re young ‘do that and I might get cancer when I’m 50-odd’.”<\/p>\n What is HPV?<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_KNM_ORAL_SEX_GAVE_ME_CANCER_4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775746991_730_0_KNM_ORAL_SEX_GAVE_ME_CANCER_6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Jeff's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775746992_935_0_KNM_ORAL_SEX_GAVE_ME_CANCER_3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n