An exhausted carer thought her mouth ulcer was just down to job stress when it first appeared under her tongue.
However, when she eventually had it checked over by doctors, Jessica Tappenden-Rowell was given a devastating cancer diagnosis.
The 23-year-old from North Yorkshire had just started a new job when she noticed the ulcer in May 2024 and had been ‘feeling a bit tired’.
So, she brushed it off as her being ‘exhausted’ and ‘run down’ and ignored it.
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“I was so busy with work anyway it didn't cross my mind to get it checked out. I just didn't really even think about it,” she added.
But after a couple of months, it started to get ‘really painful’ whenever she ate or yawned and brought tears to her eyes.
"Any time I was eating tomatoes or something acidic like oranges or lemons it was really hurting,” Jessica explained. "It didn't even cross my mind that it would be something bad.
"It just started getting weirder, there was redness and there were white bumps around it. I could see that it was getting worse.”
But with the pain carrying on, she visited her GP where she was referred to hospital.
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Following a tongue biopsy in August, Jessica was told the following month that the sore was cancerous.
"From not thinking it was anything, to suddenly having cancer, to suddenly having a life-changing surgery. It was wild,” she said.
“That was like a smack in the face. It was insane. I can't even explain what it felt like going from, 'oh yeah it's nothing, it'll be nothing' to literally, 'okay, this could be one of the worst things ever'.”
She was diagnosed with stage one squamous cell carcinoma and after an MRI and CT scan determined the cancer hadn't spread, doctors arranged an operation to remove the tumour.
And when they replaced the cancerous part of her tongue, she gained a new tattoo. Kind of.
They used a section of her forearm to replace it, including a £80 tattoo of the initials ‘BOA’ for Bloodstock Open Air in honour of the Derbyshire festival. She can still show it off though, as it can be seen on the underside of her tongue.
The six-inch by two-inch section of her skin along with a vein and an artery were plugged into her tongue to provide blood flow.
Jessica underwent the surgery at the start of October and is now still getting used to eating certain foods like chocolate and bread.
"You have to get used to your tongue and using it to speak, it took me months,” she added, noting that she still gets ‘even more slurry’ when her mouth is ‘extra tired’.
"The whole area that is just my arm skin, that's not muscle. It doesn't move the same way. My tongue is now a different shape,” she explained.
Now cancer free, she is urging others to get anything unusual checked out.
"If you have an ulcer that has not gone away within two weeks, get it checked,” she said. "The earlier you go, the less chance of this type of surgery. If I had gone earlier I might not have [needed] such a large portion of my tongue removed."
It was also added that while Jessica did vape before her diagnosis, her surgeon told her it wasn’t the cause of the cancer.
"Previous to my diagnosis I did smoke. I vaped for a couple of years and obviously I went to uni, I drank. But it was never anything severe, it was what a normal person would do,” she said.
"My surgeon said, 'even if you had been a severe alcoholic and smoker, at your age this would not have done anything to you yet. That would not have been the cause. You're too young, you've not had enough years to have caused that kind of damage yet.' It's just bad luck."
The NHS lists the main symptoms of mouth cancer as:
- 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
Jess Battison